Elation SixBar supports Othello tour
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The Cambridge University European Theatre Group is a self-sufficient theatrical company that tours a Shakespeare play around Europe every December and has been doing so since 1957. The tour is entirely student run, from organising logistics to the technical elements of setting up lighting and sound in each venue. Tour manager Lily Burge oversaw all logistical elements of the latest tour, while production manager Matthew Latham oversaw the technical elements of the show.
The run posed an opportunity to showcase Elation's multi-purpose SixBar LED battens in a wide range of venues. As it is students that make up the entirety of the company, Matthew Latham says the strong team of crew members were immensely hands on with the fixtures, from designing the rig to setting them up in each venue. Led by production manager Latham and chief electrician Dylan Phelps, the on-tour technicians were able to handle the fixtures throughout the two-week-long tour and provided a chance for the entire company to learn more about how dynamic lights are used.
Eight SixBar 1000s played a key role in Emily Senior’s lighting design, four of which were placed at the wings to provide side light. “This not only helped to set the scene as the play progressed, but greatly helped to evoke the theme of mystery and intrigue present throughout the show by throwing colored shadows across the stage,” Senior stated.
As the entire production was filled with colour, Senior says the main benefit of the SixBar 1000s was their ability to provide a wide range of vibrant colour, both to show shifting locations and the life and vibrancy of jazz clubs. “The range of tones they produced were extremely important,” Senior says, “as was the fact that they could provide colour even when lighting was extremely low in scenes where shadow and tension were to fill the stage.”
The Cambridge University European Theatre Group toured Othello using a rig of mostly LED fixtures, the advantages of which were not lost on Matthew Latham. He commented: “As well as providing incredible flexibility to our designers during the show itself, the LED-based rig significantly simplified power requirements and therefore helped increase the speed of our get-ins.
“We have very short get-in windows, and each venue presented a totally different technical set-up, which often complicates rigs with conventional fixtures. The SixBar 1000s were ideal for our design; its huge range of colours helped us to create a visually stunning production, whilst being great on tour as it is so lightweight.”
(Jim Evans)
