Chauvet adds colour to Jekyll & Hyde
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Dreams do indeed come true when you grow up to become a talented lighting designer. Truax has been earning widespread praise for his current work lighting Jekyll & Hyde The Musical at Long Island’s popular John W Engeman Theatre. Fittingly, his dramatic contrast of colours is endowing the stage with a transformative dream-like quality that underscores the musical’s good-evil dichotomy. Helping him achieve this powerful effect is a collection of Ovation, Maverick and Rogue fixtures from Chauvet Professional.
“I’ve always been a fan of this show, in part because of the interplay of such powerful and conflicting emotional forces at play in it,” said Truax. “These forces are conveyed throughout the show with colour. Colour is an integral part of my design. I am not afraid to put colour onstage. One of the main themes of my design for this show was the blue changing to blue-green as Jekyll’s world starts to decay and transition into Hyde’s world. Of course, Hyde’s colour is pure red, which allows us to have a clear distinction between him and Jekyll.”
The six Ovation E-910FC RGBA-Lime ellipsoidals in the Jekyll & Hyde rig were critical to helping Truax convey these mood changes in colour. “I was excited to use the lime LEDs in the Ovation fixtures,” he said. “I never went and adjusted the lime diode used in the fixtures; I select my colours by gel numbers. Then from there I adjust the hue sat. The lime diode does allow me to create some wonderful pastel colors that I just was never able to achieve with RGB-only fixtures.”
In addition to the Ovation colour-mixing ellipsoidals, Truax used six Ovation E-260WW high-output warm white ellipsoidals, as well as a collection of tungsten fixtures. “I am a huge fan of the LED ellipsoidals,” he said. “I love the flexibility that they give me as a designer. I find that when you are using the more saturated colouurs, the LEDs are far better than a traditional incandescent fixture with gels.”
Truax is also using an impressive collection of moving fixtures in his design. He positions two Maverick MK2 Spot fixtures on the FOH truss, three Rogue R2 Washes on the second electrical, two Rogue R2 washes and one Maverick MK2 Spot on the third electrical, and a single Rogue R2 Wash on the fourth electrical.
(Jim Evans)
