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Robe supports Scripps National Spelling Bee week

The 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee final week whittled nearly 250 spellers from across the USA and around the world down to ten super-spellers who spelled off a live televised finale to the famous contest. The event was staged for the first time in a new venue, the DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.

Lighting “Bee Week” - also for the first time - was John Viesta, invited by executive producer Michael Davies, who wanted to ramp up the intellectualism and intensity of the event, transforming it from a spelling competition to prime time TV edutainment, complete with more tension, suspense, and theatrical drama.

Viesta says he has recently become a fan of Robe products, especially iFortes for key lighting. Having used them on last year’s “BravoCon Live with Andy Cohen” show in Las Vegas, he again specified iFortes, adding ninety to the lighting plot for this show, together with seventy-five Robe iSpiiders, plus some other fixtures, all delivered by rental vendor Main Light.

This more gameshow style of “Bee Week” presentation was directed by Michael Dempsey and inspired by bringing a “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” vibe to the grand finale. The event and production have been getting increasingly sophisticated and refined in recent years, and in 2025, it celebrated its centenary.

Viesta worked closely with the creative team, including set designer Bruce Ryan, and the scenic fabrication crew from Legacy Scenic, as the production staging was installed in the venue’s presentation hall space. Viesta’s two favorite key phrases for this project were “prime time vibe” and “specificity” and all his lighting concepts were based around these.

The iFortes and iSpiiders were used to light the contestants, set and audience, with the iFortes delivering all the key lighting and specials. The lights were rigged on overhead trusses in the large room. Viesta had not used iSpiiders before, but for this show, he needed quantities of wash lights, and Main Light had these available. Their primary job was to light the audience, which contained lots of parents, relatives and friends of the contestants, all of whom were very invested in the action unfolding onstage as the young spellers demonstrated their brainpower.

A key to finding the right aesthetic for “Bee Week” was unleashing that bit of prime-time razzamatazz, but without making it distracting. The constant interaction between the spellers and the judges also needed to be captured for TV, and here Viesta explains that the shutters of the iForte were ideal for repeatability, enabling the framing of people with soft pools of controlled light.

Viesta hugely enjoyed being part of the process of transforming the Spelling Bee final into this more dynamic and invigorating environment, commenting that he, Michael Davies and Michael Dempsey were all very much aligned in the vision and storytelling of the project. “I absolutely loved the experience”, Viesta declares. “In fact it’s become my favorite show of the year to light so far.”

Viesta worked alongside lighting director Tyler M. Perry, lighting programmer Bob Going, supervising gaffer John Salzmann, gaffers Tom Thayer, Eric Kasprisin and Nkosi Mason, head production rigger Shawn Robinson and production rigger Nick Fedeli.

(Photos: Edward M. Pio Roda/Scripps National Spelling Bee)

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