JSA - Stage & Show Production Company

JSA Company was founded by Alexander Strizhak on September 17, 1996 in Moscow. That day the famous concert by Michael Jackson took place at Moscow’s Dynamo Stadium within the «History World Tour». This event, where Alexander Strizhak worked as a technical director from the Russian side, marked the beginning of a new, unknown in ex-Soviet republics direction in show- business, which is the professional management of administrative and technical support of cultural events and concerts. In English this term sounds like “Technical Production” or simply “Production”.

From that time on, JSA introduced this term into the Russian entertainment industry and it started being used by specialists. At that moment JSA discovered a new direction in the world of show-business, and it became JSA’s walk of life. We made it an independent direction. It was a kind of ‘know-how’ for the growing ‘young’ industry. By keeping a constant search of our identity, we confidently promoted and developed the ideology of our business and gradually many other tech companies started trying their hand in this field. And now it is a standard for all major stage construction companies, but still each one interprets the provision of the service in its sole discretion. Though we managed to create and introduce into common use the general rules of this business, relying on foreign standards and personal experience.

In 1997 JSA has bought the first big set of professional stage constructions for a huge celebration of 850-anniversary of Moscow, when many street performances took place. This was the beginning of business for JSA Company. That time other Russian companies made humble attempts to assemble pre-fabricated stages, but they were temporarily and nonsystematic. We’ve started a new era in this direction, considering that before us there was uncertainty in the country, no one to learn from and overseas experience was far from us, as world-famous artists came rarely to Russia, especially with outdoor concerts. JSA had to create the basis of this business and production relations in assembling of temporary stages for various shows, i.e. projects. Today it has become the norm and the daily work with the rules laid down by JSA in the beginning and they have been developed greatly over the years of JSA existence.

Why we did it then? It was important and prestigious for us to start up our own new business. Moving seamlessly in this direction, in two years we could add to the name of JSA additional definition – “a professional staging company”. And we have achieved this by successfully combining two kinds of services, which complement each other well, as the stage, being the basis of any show, arrives the first and leaves the last. Having made professional development, teamwork, new technologies and learning from other companies a priority, we were able to take our rightful place among the major players in the domestic show-business and we had a profound influence on its formation and development.

We have created new professions for the entertainment industry such as Production manager, who is in charge of administrative and technical issues in preparation and production of stage projects, Stage manager, who is engaged in engineering and organizational issues of stage construction works, and Assembling specialist, who assembles stage structures. There were no such professions before neither in Russia nor in Ukraine. We had to create them from scratch, by forming the rules of relationship, acquiring skills and sometimes making mistakes. We had a great influence on the formation of such profession like Rigger – he is engaged in suspension of lifting equipment, sound, light and video equipment, structural components and decorations. And these efforts were not wasted - the company has ‘raised’ almost all valuable market participants, known for their work now and in past. We’ve been always building teamwork culture and innovative atmosphere and this made for all our impressive achievements. Our trained and experienced specialists, who work now in similar companies, make their basis and their ‘golden’ personnel, and are always hunted for. Being pioneers in this business we were able to achieve success, we have thought out the production technology and logistics operations to the smallest detail, and we changed it from amateur to sustainable business, strengthening it with new knowledge and our active work. We paid great attention to the training of specialists and introduced accident prevention measures, set up rules of conduct and quality standards.

Developing and improving internally, we started strengthening our influence on the market by expanding our activities. To this end, we created the department for organization and holding concerts of Western artists (2000-2003). During that time, we organized concerts in Moscow of such stars as Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, Muse, Roxette, Modern Talking, Ritchie Blackmore, Ken Hensley, Guano Apes, Scooter, Bomfunk MC's and Yann Tiersen. And the most important event we did was the mega show at the Red Square on Moscow City Day with the concerts of Scorpions, Thomas Anders and the Presidential Orchestra of the Russian Federation. We invited the famous director Gert Hof as a director of this show.

All this has given us a vast experience and skills to produce turn-key projects, that can’t be acquired by working solely as a technical contractor. We’ve learned all the details of this complicated work, which allowed us to better understand the challenges and problems of the customers and the organizers of any show-projects. Thanks to our good name and flexibility in cooperation with clients and partners we could expand geographically - Ukraine, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Greece, Holland, Guatemala, Kaliningrad Region, Georgia and Kazakhstan. JSA was the first company to open its branch office in St.Petersburg (1998), establish company in Ukraine (2006) and offices in Europe (Riga, Latvia, 2003). JSA took part in organization of big festivals such as “Invasion”, “Wings”, “Creation of the World”, “Scarlet Sails”, “Rock on the Volga”, Moscow International Film Festival and Kinotavr.

Being a supporter of the continuous business development and wishing to make its contribution, JSA company took part in the biggest event “Music Moscow show” (2004). And the following year we became the constant technical partner of this show. By promoting advanced technologies on the market, we have become exclusive partners in Russia and Ukraine of the famous manufacturers as Wilhelm Layher GMBh, Germany (since 1999), and Prolyte Product Group, the Netherlands (since 2003). We made a revolutionary impact on the development and formation of the philosophy of stage and other structures usage in the industry of show-business in Russia, Ukraine, CIS countries and neighboring countries.

Owing to our approach to quality of work and service provision we participated in all major and significant projects with world stars, thereby creating strong ties with the European entertainment industry, establishing many business relationships and professional contacts. Our stages hosted world stars like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Elton John, Roger Waters, Joe Cocker, Kiss, Rammstein, HIM, Prodigy, Montserrat Caballe, Placido Domingo, Bocelli, Placebo, Pet Shop Boys, Muse, Brian May, Metallica, Deep Purple, ........