White Light keeps The American Clock ticking
- Details
The American Clock portrays the devastation that American citizens experienced when the stock market crashed and the Great Depression began in 1929. The play uses an ensemble cast to explore the lives of several families across several cities. It is directed by Rachel Chavkin and features a lighting design by Olivier Award-winning Natasha Chivers.
Natasha comments: “This is an epic play that manages to tell a huge story about an entire nation. Rachel wanted to create something quite extraordinary in which we put the audience right into this extraordinary time in American history. Part of this included having audience members on stage. What this means is that the Old Vic stage has now been turned so that it’s practically ‘in the round’. When I’ve lit shows here before it’s always been ‘end on’ so this was a new experience for me.
“Initially, we toyed with the idea of using a tracking moving light system as well as followspots due to the fact that we needed to stay with the characters as they moved round the revolving stage. We eventually decided to go for one large moving light rig which would light everything. What’s really interesting about this play is that it’s a combination of your traditional Arthur Miller play coupled with music pieces. As a result, it meant the design I created needed a mix of tungsten, LED and discharge lighting”.
Natasha would use the tungsten lighting for the play’s more traditional scenes whereas LED was used for the sparkly musical numbers and the discharge was used to create a glossy feel. She worked closely with WL’s senior account handler Jedd Hamilton to draw on her ideal rig. This included Martin MAC Viper Performances, ETC Series 2 Lustrs, ETC Revolutions, ROBE Robin DL7S Profiles, ETC Revolutions and Martin MAC TW1s.
(Jim Evans)
