Thomas has worked for Jill Scott since 2007, after working with her previous designer, the late Tyrone 'Admiral' Long on the Sugarwater Festival Tour in 2006. For this tour, the start of a live performance campaign that continues into 2014, he took a complete departure from the last one in terms of the lighting aesthetic, putting intimacy, close communication and a sense of timeless elegance right at the heart of the performance.
"The previous tour featured large, dynamic lighting elements while this year's look is more subtle and refined," he comments.
The 24 Pointes were newly purchased for the tour by Australian lighting vendor Clifton Productions, which has the largest inventory of Robe fixtures in Australia. They were supplied together with 21 x LEDWash 600s and 18 x ColorSpot 1200E ATs.
The lighting rig was essentially based on three trusses and designed to add verticality, depth and three dimensionality to the show. It also embraced the principals of 'less is more' with Thomas choosing his fixtures carefully and using them as proper multi-functional instruments fulfilling many different roles in the process.
Scott takes a keen interest in how she looks onstage and is very aware of lighting and how it affects the drama and emotional impact of her performance.
The downstage truss featured 12 Pointes which were used throughout the show as hard edged profile key lights in CTO, while the other 12 were distributed around the rest of the rig and used for numerous effects and adding colour and movement.
"They are absolutely awesome; one of the most feature packed lighting fixtures I have had the pleasure of using in a long time," comments Thomas.
(Jim Evans)
