White Light supplies lighting for Holes tour
- Details
Presented by The Children’s Theatre Partnership, Holes is the creative new stage show based on the multi-award winning novel and Hollywood blockbuster. Adapted for the stage by the novel’s author Louis Sachar, the piece is set in a labour camp where a boy, Stanley, has to dig the same sized hole every day while a tyrannical warden looks on. The show features a lighting design by Prema Mehta and an associate lighting design by Guy Jones.
Guy comments: “I have dual roles on this production as associate lighting designer to Prema as well as production electrician, with my overall brief being to recreate the original lighting design in a touring format. Many of the tour moves are in and up in a day so one central aim has been to replicate the looks while ensuring the rig would be quick to install. Making a consistent standard achievable for every tour move was my main focus with regards to designing the rig itself. Another big consideration was that the entire show must tour in one trailer, so any toured LX had to occupy as little space as possible”.
As the play is set in the Texan desert, this played a major part in Prema’s design. Guy explains: “In terms of feel, Prema’s design uses strong colours on the cyc, with the heat of the desert being introduced with warm backlight. There are also many specials used for puppets and other specific whilst side light is also used a lot. I started with the kit list that Prema had used for the original Nottingham Playhouse production and worked closely with WL’s senior account handler Jedd Hamilton to find fixtures that would be more suited to a touring production”.
Vari-Lite VL1000/1100 AS and TS units featured strongly in the original rig and this was something that Guy chose to keep in the touring rig. He explains: “Whilst they are not the most modern units, I am personally very fond of the contrast between the AS and TS sources and they work to great effect in many moments of this production.
“For the cyc lighting, simple yet strong colours were required but I was also keen to keep weight and rigging time to a minimum. As such, Jedd suggested the Showline SL400 RGBW Battens which worked perfectly as they were very easy to rig and provided the exact colour palette needed.”
He continues: “For LED wash lights, we settled on a combination of Robe 1200 and 800 LEDWash units. Once again, these are lightweight and provide all the colours required for the show, particularly strong blue hues working very well as well as being able to achieve the straw like colours and other lighter shades also required.
“Four ColourSource Units are used for gobo effects on the cyc and these work well, proving enough output and suitable colour rendering for the purpose. The sidelight is achieved with standard fixed angle Source Fours and the rest of the rig comes from venue stocks of Fresnels in the overheads and Profiles front of house. For spot effects and practicals, we have used birdies, Source Four Mini Profiles, LOOK Solutions Unique 2.1 Haze machines, along with a SHoW Baby 6 Wireless DMX system.”
(Jim Evans)
