The new building, designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects and intended to replace the Leicester Haymarket and form the centrepiece of the city's new Cultural Quarter, will provide a versatile series of performance spaces: a principal 750 seat theatre and smaller 350-seat studio theatre with back to back stage, but with the ability to remove the divide between the two stages to create one traverse performance space, or even open the stages up to the spectacular glass foyers and to the world outside if required by a particular production.
Such a building needs a versatile stock of lighting equipment to expand upon the range of equipment which will be moved to the new venue from the Haymarket. Curve's 'wish list' was arrived at in long discussions between theatre consultants Charcoal Blue, Graham Lister, the theatre's development director, production electrician Ian Moulds, acting as a lighting consultant for the venue, and others involved in lighting, particularly those with a connection with Leicester's theatres - most notably designer Chris Ellis who has lit many shows at the Haymarket.
The final package includes conventional lighting, moving lights, followspots, scrollers, rigging, portable dimming and more. Much of the equipment is being sourced from the companies for which White Light is the exclusive UK distributor. This includes a selection of Robert Juliat equipment (RJ710 profiles, LeCin'k, 329 and Lutin fresnels, Aramis and Super Korrigan followspots), colour scrollers from Rainbow (6" Pro, 8" Pro, 12" Pro, 15" Pro), smoke and haze from Look Solutions (Viper and Unique machines) and dimming from LSC (Redback six-way dimmer racks).
The rig also includes Avo ART2000 touring dimmers, Source Four profiles and battens from ETC, Pars from Thomas, beamlights from R&V, Ministrip battens from L&E, cyc lighting from Altman, Thomas and Selecon plus White Light's new 350LFX effects projector with VSFX drive units. Moving lights include tungsten Alpha Halo Washlights from Clay Paky, and MAC 700 Spots and Washes from Martin.
White Light has also supplied the venue with a comprehensive selection of rigging, cabling and other infrastructure, including internally wired bars, meat racks for storage, DMX cabling, Socapex cabling, spiders and stage boxes, ballet towers, Doughy stands and Slick Minibeam truss.
"We are delighted to be working with Graham and all of the team at Curve," comments White Light's sales director, Peter Threadgold."
(Jim Evans)
