Q1, A rose by any other name... by MICHAEL A. BECK
(Tour Guide Journal Vol. 9 Issue 12, 2006)

                                l-r Q1's Craig Redden, Marc Raymond and Brian Konechny

Shakespeare wrote "Tis but thy name that is my enemy... that which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet." This is the story of just such a rose...

In 1978 Marc Raymond founded Westsun in Winnipeg, Canada. In the beginning it was a small lighting company that serviced whatever part of the Canadian concert industry it could get its hands on. At that time, twenty five percent of the music played on the radio in Canada had to be Canadian artists. What this meant was that there was a lot of production work to be had because there were a lot of bands that were touring the Canadian arena circuit that would not be able to do so in a concert market that was not so strongly influenced by government regulation.

While this turned out to be a huge failure for most Canadian artists, it was good news for Raymond and his burgeoning lighting company. He explains, "As a result of that CRTC regulation, all of these really talented Canadian artists got so deeply absorbed in the Canadian market that they never made it into the US and that was a tragedy. But on the other hand, it was good for us in that it allowed us to become a touring company early on."

From the beginning Westsun was out in front of the Canadian touring pack in the way it paid close attention to the logistical needs of touring. And while this did indeed attract the attention of the Canadian touring market, Raymond knew that there were still many untapped opportunities out there. One such opportunity was the 1986 World's Fair in Vancouver, known as Expo '86. He wanted the business that Expo could offer but knew that it would be a tough nut to crack from Winnipeg. So he teamed with Phil Bernard, an industry veteran based in Vancouver.

The two got together and created the Vancouver location of Westsun. Once again, Raymond explains, "It was partly because of the opportunities that the World's Fair had to offer, but it was also partly a defensive move as well. The thought was that if we don't go in and get a big chunk of the enormous amount of work that will be available there, someone else will and then there will be a major base player in the Vancouver area. And certainly there was a lot of work and it was spread out. But we definitely got the biggest part of it."

Next came the Calgary Winter Olympics at which Westsun landed the gig for the closing ceremony. With that job came a whole host of other projects in and around the games such as the awards ceremony and several cultural events that took place. And while the overall body of work done during the Games was a huge financial and esteem boost, the closing ceremony put the company on the international map. This changed everything.

While at the Olympics, Westsun garnered the attention of a freelance technical director named Ian Poole, whose next job after the Olympics was for Ontario based Cineplex Odeon owned by Garth Drabinsky. Drabinsky's company eventually spun off a theatrical production company called Livent and produced several major productions, one of which was a ten year run of Phantom of the Opera in Toronto that used Westsun lighting and audio.

This got the attention of Broadway producers and designers, and soon Westsun was not only doing lighting and sound, but scenery as well. It was growing at a meteoric rate. Livent was growing at the same rate and as long as Westsun performed, it grew with Livent providing production services for Show Boat (at one time it had three separate productions out at once) and a touring company of Phantom. It did Ragtime, Fosse, Kiss of the Spider Woman among many others on Broadway. "Livent took us to Broadway," says Raymond. "From the parries of Canada, we went to Broadway because of our relationship with them. Those guys were huge and totally loyal to us."

Indeed, at that time Livent accounted for wholly 25% of theatrical production revenue between Broadway and the road according to Variety Magazine. And Westsun was by its side the entire way. That experience and the respect that came with it allowed Westsun to land the lighting contract for the original Disney production of the Lion King on Broadway in 1997 followed by productions in London, Toronto and Los Angeles.

In 1998 the company acquired a scenic company in Toronto, which became its scenic arm called Westsun Scenic Edge. In addition to doing standard scenic elements, this division of the company went on to also do the puppets for the Toronto run of Lion King. For that run Westsun provided lighting, audio, automation, scenery and the puppets, an unprecedented degree of presence for one company on a theatrical show.

In 1999 Westsun acquired The Obie Company. While the acquisition of hardware in the deal was big, the roster of touring accounts, which included Britney Spears, Nsync, Billy Joel and Tom Petty put Westsun on the top rung of the touring industry. The acquisition of Obie also dramatically increased the company's presence in the corporate/event market, particularly through the auto show business which was so substantial that the company also maintained a Detroit office.

While all of this growth sounds great, there was an illness in the body of the company that would soon prove to be fatal. The bulk of the company's growth was either fueled by its relationship with Livent or aimed at fueling that relationship. Either way one looks at it, Westsun's exposure to that one company was dangerously broad. Just how dangerous that association was would soon be revealed.

In 1998 Livent sought bankruptcy protection in the U.S. claiming a debt of $334 million and securities regulators in both Canada and the U.S. began investigating the company's books. Drabinsky, 48, and his partner Myron Gottlieb, 55, founders of Livent, Inc., were indicted by a New York City federal grand jury on 16 counts of criminal fraud and conspiracy. The U.S. alleged that the partners led an eight-year scheme to fake earnings or hide financial losses and siphon off some $4.6 million. In a separate civil complaint, the SEC charged the two with securities fraud. Drabinsky denied the charges and blamed the company's "new management" for the mess.

In addition to Drabinsky's denial of any wrong doing, he vowed to come back with the somewhat famous quote referencing naysayers who compared him to Icarus of Greek myth. "Icarus' woes didn't come from trying to fly too close to the sun," Drabinsky argued, "I think the bastard just gave up too soon." But no amount of fighting spirit or hubris was enough to save the company. Especially given that the two never showed up in court and are, to this day, both currently under fugitive warrants in the U.S. for not showing up for their trial. They are vigorously fighting similar charges in Canada and as yet no charges have been proved.

The ship went down without a bubble and that meant big trouble for the fast growing Westsun, which had now become Westsun International and at the time had $50 million worth of gear out with Livent. When it all came to a halt this really fast boat that Westsun International had been water skiing behind was now on the way to the bottom of the lake as fast as it had once been skipping across the surface. The problem was that Westsun International had no way to let go of the rope in time.

Today, Raymond is philosophical when asked about Drabinsky. "On the one hand Livent led to the demise of my company, on the other hand we, along with hundreds of actors, technicians, musicians and vendors had unprecedented opportunities to show the world how deep the talent pool was in Canada and many of us continue to reap the rewards of that exposure."

When all of the leasing contracts out with Livent came back, there was nowhere to go with the gear. So in 2000, under the massive financial stress of the situation, Raymond and Bernard sold the physical assets of Westsun back to its venture capitalist at a very low cost just to settle company debts and left the company. By 2002 Westsun was no more.

But that's not where it stopped. "We sat around and talked about it. It wasn't that we were tired of the business," Raymond recalls, "The only reason we were out of the business was because of this catastrophic incident at Livent. But this is what we knew how to do. So we started Q1."

In 2001, the two partners got back to work and formed Q1 with third partner Brian Konechny. With long-time associate Craig Redden coming back on board, they dove into their 23 year old rolodexes and started from the beginning. But this time they put the lessons they'd learned to use. This time the company would be a lighting company rather than an "all things to all men" operation.

I had been happily living in Toronto so the most difficult thing about it for me was to take a step back, take less money and leave Toronto when there were much better offers out there," says Redden, "but I loved the idea of us putting it all back together again." This is where the four showed what the new company would be made of. The fact is that after the crushing blow of falling so far after having risen so high, there had to be some humble pie to be eaten in the process. But the guys took it one step at a time and played it by the book that was written out of the lessons learned in a previous life.

Once having gotten on its feet, Q1 was able to buy back the Winnipeg and Vancouver assets that had been sold off in the end of the Westsun era. However, the most important assets had always been held onto from the old days. Among them is a history of never having dropped the ball. Another is the vast amount of experience and expertise gained from the work done in virtually every aspect of the production industry. Today Q1 is servicing theatre, concert, TV and film, corporate and special event clients throughout North America. It's not taking on more than it can chew. But it can now chew a lot.

Q1 works out of the Winnipeg and Vancouver offices with an attitude that there is nothing that can't be done as long as it is done right.

And despite the fact that the company is much smaller than Westsun was at its zenith, it has a selective approach to the work that it takes because of the contacts and stellar reputation and people that it has kept over the years. "We still have a number of people who were with us in the Westsun days who got us into a lot of the work that we were doing," says Raymond. "And because the fall of the old company was the result of our huge exposure to Livent and not poor attention to client satisfaction, the amount of opportunities we face now is disproportionate to our size. So we can be a little more selective in what we take on and make sure that what we do take on is a good fit."

This year's Tran-Siberian Orchestra tour design, done by the wild eye of Bryan Hartley, called for the placement of gear in some rather difficult places on the truss. And, as was discussed in the feature story on that tour in this issue of Tour Guide Journal, crew chiefs on that tour did some designing of their own and solved the issue of how to get the lights where the designer wanted them in order to get the light where the music called for it to be. That kind of technical dedication to the craft of design plays big in how a designer chooses a company.

In addition to working with Hartley, Q1 has also brought to life the work of designers such as Brad Dickson, Jeff Ravitz, Pierre Marleau, Dan Cassar, Graeme Nichol and Paul Pyant on productions ranging from TSO to the enormous stage musical production of The Lord of the Rings to an international tour with Sarah McLachlan. Having sailed under the Q1 flag for five years now, the company has done every kind of lighting that can be done and has done so with high acclaim. Company heads say that there isn't anything that they can't do. "It's just a matter of getting out there and breaking in to some of the places we haven't penetrated yet as Q1." Says Redden, "We'd like to get deeper into the mainstream of Rock and Roll touring."

While there are some pretty big fish swimming in that stream, there is always room for one more. And with the very impressive body of work that Marc Raymond and Phil Bernard (along with all of the other people who are too many to name) have put together, regardless of the name they worked under, there is no reason to believe that Q1 can't or won't soon be among them. In the opinion of this writer, this rose by a relatively new name has greatness ahead of it!

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