At the Arcola Theatre the ORB was in control of the acclaimed production of Elder Latimer is in Love directed by Sebastian Michael. After using the ORB recently on What's Wrong with Angry, lighting designer MJ Urbanek was happy to specify it again for Elder Latimer. He says, "The ORB is an easy desk to learn and has all the features needed for controlling moving lights and LED fixtures. With the two screens, it is easy to see exactly what is going on. I love using the ORB as its intuitive and simple to use yet boasts all the features of a more complicated console."
With sustainability projects part of its core business, the Arcola Theatre aims to be the world's first carbon neutral theatre. As such they supplement their energy supply with a hydrogen fuel cell and only offer 36 channels of house dimming. In order to maintain their green approach and meet the shows design requirements numerous LED battens and LED pars were brought in for Elder Latimer.
Urbanek specified ORB to cope with the additional channel demands of the show, leaving the house desk (a Zero 88 Jester) to act as a fader wing utilising the DMX Input on the ORB.
To mark the fifteenth birthday of the Landor theatre, artistic director Robert McWhir chose to revive Into the Woods - the venue's first musical production.
With around 500 cues in the three-hour Sondheim-Lapine collaboration the ORB had to be capable of fast programming. The ORB's cue list display which graphically shows the cue split time was invaluable during the programming phase.
Into the Woods featured 96 channels of dimming, six Moving lights and many LED channels - all controlled by the ORB, plus an MA Video Server and Projections.
(Jim Evans)
