White Light was approached to provide the lighting for this hugely-anticipated production and this included premium products from GLP.
Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a new play by Jack Thorne and follows Harry Potter, now a Ministry of Magic employee, and his younger son Albus Severus Potter. The lighting designer for the show is Tony Award and Olivier Award-winner Neil Austin.
He comments, "My main aim for the show was to create something magical. With Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the primary desire from everyone involved was to use traditional theatre craft and techniques but push the boundaries as to what we thought was possible. We needed to produce something mesmerising and create the world of illusion that the audience would expect from Harry Potter."
With lighting playing an intricate role in the production, Neil had to ensure that he perfected his design. He comments, "Prior to the show opening, we held a lot of workshops around the piece. Practically, these were extremely useful as it gave me a sense of what I was looking for in terms of my design and allowed me to try out a variety of ideas."
Neil also visited Studio15, WL's studio facility located at its London premises. Here he was able to experiment with equipment and test a variety of different units. He then drew on WL's range of lighting technology to ensure that he chose the exact equipment required for his ideal rig.
Neil states, "A lot of the preparation for this show was pushing the science to enhance the art. We were commissioning new software and hardware and redefining what was possible with technology to ultimately ensure that the play would achieve its potential."
Neil was assisted by associate LD, Adam King and programmer, Dan Haggerty as his programmer. Martin Chisnall was the production electrician and Gary Beestone the production manager.
(Jim Evans)
