Kim Hollamby | The anchor swallowed

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.

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Formanda gets some finesse

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.

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Fame – Starmaker hits the spot

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

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Let there be light

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

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In Seine moments in France

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.

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du Pré Marine launched

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.

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Squaring the circle

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.

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Chess The Musical 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!

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Chase me, chase me

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?

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(En)sign of progress

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.

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