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 Act 1 end of Sainsbury Singers' production of Beauty and the Beast
Sainsbury Singers’ recent production of Beauty and the Beast represented something of a new record for me in terms of the length of time invested to rig, focus and plot the show – around four long days or so. But given really excellent reviews and a great cast performance it was all worthwhile.
I specified a number of new things in the plan, all of which fortunately worked out pretty well.
Among a reasonably broad palette of gels I tried three Lee colours previously unknown to me – HT797 Deep Purple for cross-stage washes (which with the addition of heat shield survived the week in Alto 2.5kW lanterns), 703 Cold Lavender for side and front highlights and 775 Soft Amber Key 2 (for overhead lighting in candlelit dinner scene). Loved all three; will no doubt turn to them again.
Also adding considerable variation to colour was my gamble to use 16 of MilTek’s 36 x 3W LED stage wash lanterns, supplied by Dinrino Theatre Services. I was looking for something to give me some extra Disney-esque options for the look of the show and figured that the vibrant green, blue and red output from these units, coupled with the generally lower light levels of many scenes, would work. The theory was correct; their levels were enough to noticeably add even to relatively brightly lit scenes. All were easy to set up, not quirky on DMX and reliable through the show. Knowing they didn’t have barn doors I planned to use them in the rig where control of the circa 30° beam was not a problem. The one issue with these units was the tricky dimming curve of the LEDs that were close to full brightness at not much more than 50% of level on the board and also noticeable notchy between 0%-20%, so plotting had to make allowance for that.
 Be our Guest Other kit over and above deployment of much of the Hexagon’s lantern stock included a Martin Atomic 3000 strobe, Rosco Gobo rotators (all from Dinrino) and a Toccata 2.5kW effects projector to project a cloud effect on the show open gauze (this from Viking Stage Lighting).
Rigging started on the Saturday night; we worked on front of house on Sunday and focused stage Monday morning. A basic plot was in the board for Monday evening’s technical rehearsal and the polish was applied on the Tuesday during the day and then during the dress in the evening. Further tweaks were made Wednesday afternoon ahead of the first of five performances. In all 199 cues. Hard work but lots of fun!
My thanks to Peter Harley and my niece Heather Hollamby for excellent handling of the followspots and to Adrian Croton of the Hexagon tech staff for all of his efforts up the Tallescope and on the Hexagon’s Strand 550 board.
 Formanda's 240V shorepower panel
Cannot resist showing off a bit now that the woodwork surrounding Formanda‘s Blue Sea shorepower panel has been completed. It’s not perfect, but it brings a smile every time I see it at the moment.
Like much else of what we have been doing on our epic Beecham Searider 45 restoration the shorepower panel installation was quite a job. First we had a smaller hole where the old Webasto heater panel was located, just underneath the chart drawer. This had to be opened up. Then we had to create a structure for the Blue Sea panel to sit in, with a generous recess to protect from any knocks or spray from a nearby window. After that Michelle created the wiring loom that hooks up with a nearby terminal box and we ran everything into place. Finally we had to create the back panelling to protect fingers from a shock in the food cupboard behind.
It could have stopped there but we had to veneer around the inside faces of the recess and repurpose some redundant mahogany ceiling trim to edge off the whole affair. Years ago I didn’t have the patience for this work and even a few months back I was deeming it ‘cosmetic’ and therefore a job-for-the-future (that sink hole of all neglected tasks). However a few weeks back I got in tune with my woodworking genes (I suspect I actually have some) and got on with finishing off. The whole lot was finished with Epifanes Rubbed Effect varnish – the finish we eventually hope to use right through Formanda as we deal with her acres of internal brightwork.
Inspired I soon veneered and mitred my way around a new fire extinguisher recess housing underneath the lower helm. And am now halfway through constructing a tricky curved box to hide some pipes in the forward heads. After a couple of years of hard slog these are the jobs that are starting to add the finesse to Formanda and set her right for the next 30 years.
 Fame Starmaker 2010 production poster
Have just returned home from seeing Starmaker Theatre Company‘s production of Fame at the Wilde Theatre in Bracknell. It was really good to see a decent audience there and they were rewarded with an excellent performance by a fine cast, most of them under 18 years of age. Starmaker has apparently not been immune from the effects of recession on ticket sales but this is a company that really deserves to do well, whatever the economic weather.
I’d assisted with the lighting rig for this show last Sunday and so had half an idea of what to expect but the performance really exceeded my expectations. The cast were trained to a very high standard and the production values were similarly well honed. Interesting to see from the programme notes that this was the last show for some of the teenage leads; one can only hope their skills will percolate into other amateur or even professional companies.
Becca Wyard’s lighting design worked well; I really liked the opening scene, a whole sequence of lighting changes really setting the expectation for the rest of the evening. There was also neat follow-spotting throughout, subtle and effective.
It was good to see how well the six Showtec 3W LED PAR cans also worked on stage. Good beam spread, mostly flicker free fades and colour transitions and a reasonably punchy output. I’d trialled one of these late last year and suspected this model might well have made the LED PAR can come of age. Now got me thinking about possible uses on at least one forthcoming show…
 Iolanthe, performed by Reading Operatic Society at the Salvation Army hall, Reading Central
I must confess to not being exactly on top form when it came to designing and rigging the lighting for Reading Operatic Society‘s performance of Iolanthe at the Reading Central Salvation Army hall. A throat infection was not a good overture for my efforts but anyhow it all happened in the way that shows always manage to happen.
It was a new venue to Reading Operatic but not to me; my original touring PAR can rig of circa early 1980s vintage having been resident here for the past couple of decades. The original plan was to hire a lot of additional kit, fly some trusses to hang it all from and control it all with DMX, but that plan was changed and so I had to figure something out with 22 channels of dimming and just a couple of extra lanterns. Think I just about managed to prove less is more but I must confess going back to running a whole show on a two-deck preset board kept me on my toes.
Little bit busy with lighting in the near future. First in the Wilde at Bracknell next weekend to assist with the rig for Starmaker’s performance of Fame. Then to The Theatre @ The Oakwood Centre for Mostly G&S’s concert rendition of The Gondoliers on 26-27 March. Then back to the Salvation Army hall for a John Lewis fashion show on 10 April before designing the lighting for Sainsbury Singer’s performance of Beauty and the Beast at The Hexagon on 26-29 May.
Plus I really need to do a major overhaul of my lighting kit this summer. So plenty on.
 Pedro 33 Solano Incalzando on the River Seine below Rouen Just once in a while it’s fun to celebrate something for no great reason. In this case an image I first took on 35mm transparency film on the River Seine from the deck of our Pedro 33 Solano Incalzando, sometime in the mid 1990s.
From memory the specifics were a dawn departure downstream from Rouen, to ensure we took the travelator of a tide that flows with gusto on the tidal river Seine. In the image you can just see the hints of mist, but not long before or afterward tendrils of thick fog were curling over the rails and knitting themselves into a blanket to obscure even the bankside, just a few scant metres away. It was technically illegal for a leisure boat to proceed in such circumstances, given the commercial traffic on the river, but on 70-odd miles from Rouen to the sea there are few if any places suitable for pulling over and tying up, even on a steel motorboat. And so we put the radar on and spent a concentrated hour or so until the sun got going and broke through.
These days it would be very interesting to see how a FLIR infrared thermal imaging camera would have coped with the conditions; I’m hoping to see first-hand before too long now, as soon as we have demonstration units in play.
Meanwhile the much older technology of 35mm Fuji film reminds that the summer is but a few months away and adventures hopefully beckon.
 du Pre Marine website It’s been a little while since I was involved in the launch of a website, let alone the creation of one. The addition of a new company to our group, du Pré Marine, has provided the excuse to dust off skills and catch up with the current state of various content management platforms.
At first I was considering using WordPress for the site; it seems to be much greater than a mere blogging tool now and I really enjoy working with it on here when I have the time. But in the end I selected Joomla. It took a few hours and a couple of headache pills to get to grips with it. However the end result is good and it gives us a basis for getting going with the first of our product lines in the new company, FLIR thermal imaging cameras.
We already have our eyes on further marine product lines although the aim will be to concentrate on a small number of high quality products. Double First has just had its biggest ever year and there’s lots of good things happening at du Pré so it’s going to be a busy 2010 for all three companies.
 Model of Decorum and Dignity from Chess The Musical I’d always wanted an excuse to use square focusing of theatre lanterns in a lighting design and Chess The Musical gave me a very good reason. All of the downstage specials were focused in a grid of two rows of five squares using 10 SL 15/32s from front of house. My hat is off to Martin Pretty of the Hexagon staff who did all of the hard work on Bridge 2 getting the SLs in place first time.
This kind of focus meant the cast had to be well forward (pretty much on the front edge) of the box to be lit and there was a distinct but tiny shadow at the edge if they moved sideways between boxes. So accuracy in hitting marks (and explaining them) was needed. But the effort was worth it with a lot of encouraging comments.
I also had four Source 4 10-degree lanterns on a balcony truss to project gobos onto a back black gauze and cyc and seven 26-degree Source 4s with ChromaQ scrollers for stage backlight so that I could zone the action stage left and right as required (a further two were used for downstage chess tournament scenes). All of this kit was hired from Viking Stage Lighting and worked well.
The 10-degree Source 4 beams were just as I had calculated but I thought at first I had over-cooked the 26-degree backlights and specified them too tight. However some frost in each (thanks again Mr Pretty) gave just the effect needed.
Reviews on the show are excellent. Plaudits all around to Sainsbury Singers.
 Chess The Musical, performed by Sainsbury Singers 27-31 October And so to rehearsals for Sainsburys Singers‘ performance of Chess The Musical at The Hexagon, Reading on 27-31 October. Having just got home from the first run-through I must say I am impressed by the quality of the singing of what is a very difficult score. Soloists are strong and the cast at full bore nearly took the roof off the rehearsal venue. Exciting!
As for my part in this, lighting, a whole stack of moving lights and three or four days to plot wouldn’t go amiss. But for all sorts of reasons I have to achieve the desired effect with less time and conventional fixtures. So my next few evenings are accounted for as I will be quite happily buried in the task of ensuring I have the many fast-flowing scenes covered.
Further details here.
 Police follow this van - why? Are the crooks inside? Is it me, or does the ‘Police follow this van’ sign seen on the back of Group 4 cash trucks these days conjure up images of a Keystone Kops scenario in which the security wagon drives past, the boys in blue read the sign and immediately obey by running after it up the road, truncheons drawn at the ready?
I guess the sign means to infer that somewhere, there is a darkened room with a lot of screens and square-eyed monitoring staff watching blips (perhaps those big blobby ones favoured in Thunderbirds and early James Bond movies) dancing across a map. Chances are though that the following of the vans is a little less intense, although I’m happy to be educated otherwise.
Just to set any minds at ease I’m not planning a heist; just mildly annoyed in a Lynne Truss kind of way at the wording.
 Formanda flies her ensign for the first time in two years I have to say that it has always felt that something was missing. And then I realised what it was.
In all of the time we have been busy rebuilding Formanda, our Beecham Searider 45, the ensign was tucked away in one of a myriad number of boxes and the staff socket was removed from the rail. Well, all of that is in the past now.
In a fit of August Bank Holiday activity (yes, I know, another timely blog!) the socket was secured to the rail, the staff rigged and the ensign flown. Actually, it’s a slightly OTT ensign, one that might cheekily flick the unwary visitor boarding astern in the ear, but after the rebuild that Formanda has endured it seems appropriate to make a bit of visual impact to celebrate progress to-date.
There’s much more to do this winter, but every time the tasks seem to be impossible I suspect I’ll be holding my own personal ensign ceremony, just to see that cheeky gash of red fly in the breeze.
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