Bumper panto season for HSL
- Details
Lighting the colourful fantasy environments that characterise this genre of comedic melodrama is huge fun for lighting designers, and this year HSL worked with 17 LDs and liaised with 25 production LX’s who made it happen on the various sites which included Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh and London.
HSL’s 2018 panto team was led by Jordan Hanson, assisted by Emma Turner, and included account handlers Sean McGlone and Mark Shakeshaft, all well-known for their multi-tasking and number-crunching abilities.
Jordan comments: “Fluid communication, having a cool head for logistics and being organised about the prep is essential. Ensuring the whole team is onboard from the start and in touch and in tune with each other and the overall picture at all times is also key. Qdos has incredibly high standards, and we enjoy rising to the challenge each year”.
Glasgow is typically the largest show in terms of production and venue size and this year lighting was designed by Tim Oliver.
Other key ones were Snow White at the London Palladium, Peter Pan in Birmingham and Goldilocks in Newcastle, all lit by Ben Cracknell, together with Edinburgh’s Beauty & The Beast and Aladdin in Bradford with lighting designed by Matt Clutterham. Ben also lit the show in Darlington while Matt lit four others.
Emma co-ordinated the mission that was custom gobos, which this year included over 3,200 gobos for several different types of moving lights.
Mark Sherwood sums up: “Another amazing season by HSL. To service 32 shows all of which open pretty much at the same time and yet preserve the one-to-one service with the lighting designers, production LX teams and the venues is no mean task. Jordan acts as our conduit to all the departments and his 24-hour commitment to the product is the best.”
(Jim Evans)
