A biennial event, the event describes itself as "the world's first festival of original, new work and special events". The Festival was established in 2007 and White Light supplied the lighting to many of the shows at that year's event, including the opera Monkey: Journey To The Westsubsequently seen in London again using equipment from White Light.
At this year's festival, White Light supplied lighting rigs to two headline events - the new opera Prima Donna, composed by Rufus Wainwright, and It Felt Like a Kiss, created by Punchdrunk with Adam Curtis and Damon Albarn.
Prima Donna, at the Palace Theatre, tells the story of soprano Regine Saint Laurent confronting the ghosts of her past as she prepares to return to the stage after six years of silence. The show was directed by Daniel Kramer and designed by Antony McDonald with lighting by Peter Mumford.
"Peter had a spectacular set to light from Anthony McDonald, including a large cyclorama," notes Jack Thompson, the festival's technical director. "White Light supplied their fabulous EvenLED cyc lighting system, which creates some spectacular effects throughout the show - the fireworks display at the end is wonderful."
Mumford is using 111 EvenLED panels to light the cyc, controlled from a grandMA Light console via four MA NSP signal processors. Alongside EvenLED, Mumford's rig includes Vari-Lite VL3000Q and 3500Q Spots, Clay Paky Alpha Wash 1200 Washlights, ETC Source Fours, Par64s, Color Kinetics ColorBlaze48 LED battens, Pixel Line 1044 battens, Robert Juliat dimmable fluorescents and an Arri 4kW HMI Fresnel, all controlled from an ETC Eos console driving a 72-way Avo ART4000 dimmer rack. The console is also driving an MDG Atmosphere haze machine, Tiny Fogger smoke machines and a Jem AF-1 fan. Working with the lighting designer on the show are a team led by production electrician Keith Johnson and programmer Victoria Brennan.
It Felt Like A Kiss tells the story of America's rise to power in the golden age of pop by leading audience members on a journey through five floors of an abandoned office block. The show has been created by Adam Curtis and Felix Barrett with site-specific theatre company Punchdrunk, and with music by Damon Albarn.
The lighting for the show, designed by Punchdrunk's Euan Maybank, "involved theming over 70 rooms and an entire basement of the office building," Jack Thompson explains. "This required a lot of small dimmer systems, CO2 heads for the decontamination section, fibre optics for the model village - as well as the practical bits, with lots of battery-powered exit signs and emergency lights."
The rig, the installation of which was overseen by Jezz Hellens, uses an eclectic collection of lighting equipment ranging from dimmable fluorescent battens to fuzz lights to Arcline strobes to mirrorballs to 5kW Fresnels to Birdies. Control of the rig is from three ELC ShowStore DMX recorders and a selection of dimmer racks from Zero88, Anytronics and LSC. "This was one of those projects that was crazy in a good way," comments Jezz Hellens. "We had nothing state of the art - all birdies and floods - but the result was a stunning piece of theatre."
"Having been so closely involved with the first festival in 2007, we were delighted to be invited back for more," comments Dave Isherwood, White Light's hire director. "The Manchester Festival encompasses a brave and exciting collection of shows and events, and with many of them sold out it is clear that Manchester is taking the Festival to its heart. Hopefully we'll get to do this all over again in two year's time."
For more on the Manchester Festival see the August/September issue of Lighting&Sound magazine.
(Jim Evans)
