Production manager Alison Ritchie heard about the damage caused to the lighting, sound and staging equipment stock of her friend Thushan Dias of Mahinda Dias Engineers. MDS has supplied lighting sound and staging services in Sri Lanka for more than 50 years, and Ritchie knew Dias having worked with him when Shared Experience toured to Colombo in the 90s. After the tsunami, she contacted him to check that he was OK, and heard that though he and his family were unharmed his house, workshop, van and equipment stock had been severely damaged by the water from the ocean breaking through the sea wall and water coming up from the building's main drain.
Ritchie and lighting designer Chris Davey decided to try to help Dias get his business up and running again, and turned to other friends and colleagues in the industry to see whether they had any equipment they might be prepared to donate. The reaction was positive: contributions were received from Shared Experience, Neil Cooper, the Cockpit Theatre, Essential Lighting, Imagination, Orbital Sound, Promptside, the Royal Festival Hall, the Royal Opera House, Stage Electrics, the Tricycle Theatre, and White Light, with the equipment dispatched from White Light in Wimbledon and the transport logistics arranged and funded by Martin Hayes of Martin Hayes Logistics.
The equipment supplied included equipment of all types, from Leko and Silhouette profile spots and Par cans to Cyberlights, Zero 88 dimmers, Arri and Zero 88 control consoles, multicore cable, truss, Court Acoustics loudspeakers, a DDA mixing console and a selection of serge and gauze cloths and flightcases. It reached Sri Lanka in early March.
"It is very easy for a person to say thank you for a gift," said Thushan Dias in a letter to those who helped. "When tragedy struck we truly realized how comfortably we have lived all these years with basic necessities and suddenly everything has come to an end. It is not only me, but many who lost their livelihood wished that they preferred to have gone with the tsunami than pick up the pieces and start again. When Alison contact me and gave me some hope of getting some equipment for me to carry on what we have been doing for the last 50 years since my father founded the company, it gave me strength to live another day and go on. However, I must admit that I did not expect one tenth of what we received yesterday. We at MDE will not stop at the word thankyou, but hope and wish every one of our donors and their families will have financial stability, good health, true happiness and prosperity."
(Lee Baldock)
