Latest news with #Quixote
Business Wire
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Wire
Legacy Meets Luxury: Quixote Revives Iconic Star Waggons Brand With New Cast Trailer Models
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Quixote, a leading provider of sound stages and production services for the entertainment industry, today announced it is reintroducing Star Waggons, the iconic brand known for providing luxury cast trailers to celebrities and production clients, with a fully remodeled trailer design. Revamped interiors feature a calming neutral palette, custom blonde millwork, and plush upholstery as well as a full-height refrigerator, electric fireplace, and light-adjustable makeup station. A refreshed exterior profile showcases smooth siding, an updated logo, and modernized graphics that retain the brand's signature stripes and retro-inspired typography. The new luxury cast trailers are all fully electric and solar-powered with access to Quixote's Sustainable Fleet Dashboard. This on-demand tool provides real-time remote monitoring, management, and data analytics giving transportation and sustainability teams essential tools and insights for eco-conscious operations and reporting. Additionally, they are among the first to include Quixote's new power sharing capability, which enables the connection of solar all-electric trailers to share power from unit to unit. The new Star Waggons are programmed to preferentially use solar power while maintaining the ability to draw power from generators if necessary. As the only product of its kind manufactured and maintained in Los Angeles by Local 399 teamsters employed by Quixote, Star Waggons are custom-built and expertly serviced to meet the discerning requirements of the entertainment industry's leading talent. 'Hollywood loves a comeback, and we are thrilled to bring a brand-new aesthetic and one-of-a-kind features to the latest models of the legendary and beloved Star Waggons cast trailers,' said Sean Griffin, Senior Vice President of Sales for Quixote and Sunset Studios. 'This marks a new chapter for Star Waggons, blending its iconic heritage with a modern approach that prioritizes sustainability, efficiency, and luxury for today's top talent.' Star Waggons was founded in 1977 by actor Lyle Waggoner ('The Carol Burnett Show,' 'Wonder Woman'), who saw the need for customized trailers to serve talent on-set and created the first custom talent trailers. The brand has grown and evolved over the years, eventually joining the Quixote fleet of production trailers, trucks, lighting & grip, and other equipment. Now Quixote is doubling down with a new Star Waggons design for its luxury cast trailers and refreshed logo that preserves beloved elements of the original branding with a modern twist. The first new Star Waggons single-cast trailer is currently available for booking and additional single, two-room, and three-room trailers will roll off the production line throughout the remainder of 2025. To learn more about the new and improved Star Waggons models and for information about rentals, please visit About Quixote Quixote is a leading provider of sound stages and production services for the entertainment industry. Quixote rents sound stages, production trailers, trucks, lighting & grip, and other equipment to support a wide range of productions including long-form television and feature film, as well as high-end photo shoots and commercials. Quixote operates in Los Angeles, New Mexico, Atlanta, and New York, while also servicing on-location productions across the U.S. As part of the Sunset Studios platform, Quixote offers unparalleled convenience, service, and quality to productions of any size. At Quixote, everyone on set is a VIP. For more information, please visit
Calgary Herald
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Calgary Herald
Review: Alberta Ballet shines with whimsy and charm in updated version of classic Don Quixote
Article content Alberta Ballet artistic director Francesco Ventriglia promised that his 2025 season finale production of Don Quixote would be an 'over-the-top rainbow of colours' world premiere, and the company certainly delivered on that for opening night. Article content Article content The Jubilee Auditorium was alive with Spanish dance, fine handmade costumes, bejewelled traditional tutus and waistcoats, and replete with some pretty slick traditional ballet. While it has been a long and gruelling season for Alberta Ballet, requiring fine-tuning and upgrades of personnel throughout the year, the results Thursday night largely spoke for themselves. A young corps and an established group of veteran soloists took on the challenge of performing Ventriglia's re-imagining of Petipa's 1869 masterpiece with a lucidity and grace that blended well into often nuanced extravagance, thanks in large part to Gianluca Falaschi's eye-catching costumes and Italo Grassi's bright set designs. Article content The goal of this splashy production was pure fun, and there was a lot to be had from the very start. Starting in the Act I square set in Barcelona, filled with as much local colour as we might expect to see, the ballet made its immediate impact on an attentive audience. Article content We were plunged into more of a fantasy of Spain, one more likely to be dreamed out of a novel by a cheerfully dreamy Quixote pursuing his ideal love, Dulcinea. Don Quixote's character was danced and acted with a sympathy rarely found in a young Quixote by a remarkably evocative Yaroslav Khudych, who ably substituted the traditional 'old man' role for a young dreamer. I think I prefer it this way: A young Quixote off on his dream adventure, surrounded by a young dance company projecting a youthful and vibrant atmosphere. It worked well throughout and displayed more of Ventriglia's vision of the company's future for the next decade, one that restocks the pond with new talent. Article content Article content Article content However, it is usual in Quixote to focus on the lovers Kitri and Basilio, danced with a practised aplomb by Alexandra Hughes and Aaron Anker. Their onstage romance is offset by a strong corps of supporters, sailors and fisherwomen, ladies and bridesmaids, matadors and, in Act II, some very nattily attired Romani (gypsies), who all seemed to collectively nurture the young lovers despite blocking figures Gamache and Lorenzo (Rikuto Kubota and Zachary Boresow). Through it all was the commedia dell'arte troupe led by Sancho Panza (Mirko Melandri) and assorted Friends (Hinata Takahara, Hotaru Maruyama). Article content Article content The action remained convincing throughout: It is a tricky matter to make the narrative thread of the lovers' story flow unbroken from start to finish, and often directors lose the thread through the labyrinth of so much choreography. By Act III, when we are presented with variation after variation and one pas de deux followed by a grand solo followed by the next at the wedding scene, it can feel overwhelming, but entirely in a way that ballet fans enjoy. What I appreciate about Ventriglia is his not making complexity feel like a burden, but rather conveying the simpler tone of an art that conceals art. There is more work and time poured into this production than meets the eye, and the grand ballets of Act III, which rounded out the love story with unexpected pith and welcomed nuance, brought the story full circle and to a satisfactory close. Article content Article content The hardworking corps de ballet seemed to respond well to this approach, paying fastidious attention to the choreography's avalanche of detail. And make no mistake – there is a lot of choreography throughout this show, enough for both the eye and ear to provide an aesthetic feast. Ludwig Minkus' music, so often looked down upon in ballet circles as too trite or supremely melodic at best, is certainly a mischaracterization. We do not pay adequate attention to the richness of Minkus' harmonic rhythm combined with lush orchestration. Article content Quixote is a polished mid-Romantic era score. To hear Minkus is to hear and see pure colour, and it is that colour that moves a musically trained Ventriglia to design a show around the supremacy of light and hue in which both sonic colour and costume colour direct his choreographic intent. Article content And yet, regardless of the sheer volume of dance this show has to offer, the centrepiece still fell squarely on Act II, featuring Quixote's shimmering dream within his fantasy: the Kingdom of Dryads, one of the most moving scenes in all of classical ballet. Here, the company was at its best, especially Luna Sasaki's ethereal Cupid, my favourite of the whole night. Alexandra Hughes was splendid again, playing her own double in the Dulcinea variation. While not quite the dreamy underworld of La Bayadère, the Act II Dryads scenes are a balm of soft light. Traditional yet restrained choreography created for each of the soloists, and especially a divine corps de ballet of 12, is quite an accomplishment for dancers and stagers alike. It led easily to the fun Tavern scene in Act III and the wedding scene's elegant joy, thanks to an excellent corps of bridesmaids and a very fine lovers' pas de deux. Article content However, it was the overall feel of the ballet that gave us a lot to celebrate. Matadors and, in particular, a very fine Espada – danced and acted consummately by Caleb Durbin – blended fine staging with groove and engaging accent. Perhaps the best of all were the Fandango dancers who took balletic colour to a whole new height. The resplendent Fandango scene reminded us that music, literature, movement and merriment are the healing miracles acted out through dance to soothe our conflicts, especially those gargantuan windmills that exist within all our minds, waiting to be conquered with art.
