"We had close to one hundred visitors," notes White Light’s general manager Bryan Raven, "many of whom hadn’t had the chance to visit our new building since we moved here last October. I think they were quite surprised at the difference between our old base in Fulham and where we are now - but were relieved to discover that all of the familiar White Light faces they know are still here. Albeit all with a little more room to work in!"
Amongst those at the open day were theatre lighting designers Simon Corder, Rick Fisher, Mike Gunning, Geoff Joyce, Jenny Kagan, Bruno Poet, Nick Richings; television lighting designers Bernie Davies and John Watt; production electricians Alistair Grant, Gerry Amies, Tony Simpson; staff members from the RSC, the National, Guildhall and LAMDA, as well as many other West End and regional theatres. Other guests included representatives from White Light’s many suppliers, including Mark White from ETC, Don Hindle from CCT, Francois Juliat from Robert Juliat and Claus Puggard from Martin Professional. "We did notice that we also had visitors from some of the other rental companies, presumably just checking up on how we were doing!" comments Bryan Raven.
Guided tours of the new building gave visitors the chance to see how it has allowed all of the members of the White Light Group, including White Light Hire, White Light Sales, The Moving Light Company, The Service Company, Colourhouse and Modelbox to be brought together under one roof for the first time. Many of the latest products offered by the companies, including the full range of Robert Juliat followspots and the new framing shutter version of the Martin Mac2000 spotlight, were on show - as was the fully prepared rig for the West End production of The Full Monty, due to leave White Light for the Prince of Wales Theatre the following week.
