Those giving their time and talent to the evening included comedians Lee Mack, Jan Ravens, Shazia Mirza, Tom Basden and Ed Aczel, with music from the electric string quartet Stringfever and the BRIT-nominated band The Feeling.
To light the wide variety of performers, the Lyric's chief electrician Chris Harris turned to White Light for help. The company immediately offered support, supplying a rig of five Martin Mac250 Spots, five Martin Mac300 Wash, four ColorKinetics ColorBlaze 48 LED battens, and four GLP Impression moving LED washlights.
Harris was delighted by the performance of the lights, particularly when coupled with the theatre's recently-purchased ETC Eos console also supplied by White Light. The Lyric is the latest of many theatres around the UK to choose ETC's new control system. White Light has also supplied systems to a range of other venues including the Leicester's Curve, the Royal Opera House and all of ATG's theatres.
"The Eos gave us immediate hands-on control, letting us create moves, chases and colour changes during the bands' sets - far easier to busk a show on the Eos than our previous console," comments Chris Harris. "The speed at which the ColourBlazes and Impressions reacted was great, and the mix of colours was perfect to quickly change the picture on stage."
The evening was a great success, raising much needed funds for the Lyric's Creative Learning programmes for local young people aged 11-19. Such has been the success of these programmes that the Lyric will soon begin work on a new £13.5million extension to the theatre to create the UK's first teaching theatre for the performing arts.
(Jim Evans)
