Tag Archive: Alex Musgrave

1. White Light Returns to ArtsEd for MA Season

   12 October 2021 07:59 Leave a Comment

   

   ArtsEd is a world-renowned centre of excellence for training in the performing arts. As part of its diverse portfolio of training, it offers an MA acting course which focuses on building versatile performers by developing their voice and identity to become bold, brave and ready for the industry. As part of the programme, the students take part in what’s known as the MA Season; an opportunity for them to perform in productions to invited industry guests. Having worked with ArtsEd on several occasions, WL was asked to provide the lighting equipment for this year’s showcase. 

   The MA Season consisted of two shows: Fear and Misery in the Third Reich and katzenmusik, with both of these taking place in the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation Theatre. Fear and Misery in the Third Reich is made up of a series of playlets that portray 1930’s National Socialist Germany as a land of poverty, fear and violence; with Nazi anti-Semitism running through the core of the play. Conversely, katzenmusik is set in the modern-day fictional town of burnside, where the residents are being split by class divide and income inequality. An isolated crime sets off a chain reaction of social vengeance that results in a viral video of the most gruesome nature…  

   The lighting designer for the MA Season 2021 was Alex Musgrave, who explains: “Despite knowing both plays would be using the same lighting rig, I still approached this project as if I was lighting two different plays in separate venues. That way, I am allowing each production the space I need to explore the piece and discover what its needs are and what will aid with the storytelling. Following this, I can then merge the requirements of each piece to see which ideas overlap and what I can combine to make one rig. 

   

   He continues: “For kaztenmusik, the director Sean Linnen’s brief was to ensure it had a very contemporary feel. The play consists of 30+ small scenes in a variety of locations such as a pub, a train station bridge, a school changing room, a flat and even a shopping centre. Each change in location had to be clearly defined by the lighting so we decided to make the transitions as bold as possible, playing with a limitless palette of colour. When it came to Fear and Misery, this was directed by Lucy Sheen, who had a brief of a very stylised film noir type lighting, that could not only serve the narrative but also add an architectural element to the play”. 

   Alongside the specific directorial briefs for each play, Alex also had to work alongside the set design. He comments: “The set by Adrian Gee offered an incredible canvas to work on, featuring a high gloss floating square stage that breached the proscenium arch. This also had a flown roof piece that sat at the back of the deck and was angled into the space almost at 45 degrees. A major opening was placed in the roof piece and for Fear and Misery, this was made circular and swapped to square for katzenmusik. We would eventually use this to position practical lights that matched the era of the plays, with Fear and Misery featuring beautiful industrial hanging pendants and katzenmusik making use of fluorescent tube fittings”.  

   Alex then approached the Customer Service team at WL to draw on the fixtures he needed; ones he knew would have to be both flexible and practical to offer him the looks he required. He explains: “The set had a lot of practical elements such as LED surrounding the floating deck and an LED rim light around the roof piece. I knew that I wanted to continue the colour changeable theme and used some LED pars to provide light through the upstage aperture. As such, I drew on the Elation SixPar 200: a unit that provided the light output required along with fitting the budget we had for both shows. They were hung close together and created a beautiful light curtain that acted as backlight for both productions. The rest of the rig was comprised of Sola Frame 1000 units, ETC Lustr 2 Frensels, Lustr 2 profiles and various generic fixtures”.  

   

   Interestingly, it wasn’t just the fixtures that Alex used to differentiate between the two shows: “Another way in which I ensured both productions felt completely individual was through the cueing styles. Fear and Misery, apart from the odd occasion, had quite long fade times for cues. They often overlapped and had complex sequences with multiple parts, almost in the style of a ‘long shot’ in film terms. With katzenmusik, the cues were very quick and the establish cue into each scene was a snap, which gave the play that fast pace it needed”.   

   The ArtsEd MA Season ran at the end of the Summer to an industry-invited audience. 

   Alex concludes: “I would like to thank WL for its continued support, as well as the team at ArtsEd for their hard work in making this production happen. I would especially like to thank Chris Mould who programmed both plays for me as, without his speed and accuracy, we wouldn’t have been able to achieve the style of production we achieved”. 

   Photos courtesy of Robin Savage and Steve Gregson. 

2. White Light Supplies You Are Here at Southwark Playhouse

   3 June 2021 13:32 Leave a Comment

   

   Like many venues across the UK, the Southwark Playhouse recently reopened its doors to welcome a live-audience for the first time in months. The opening show was You Are Here, a brand-new musical set on the night of the moon landing. Featuring a lighting design by Alex Musgrave, he approached White Light to provide the lighting equipment. 

   Produced by Grey Area Theatre and starring Wendi Peters, You Are Here is set in Chicago and follows the story of Diana; a suburban housewife who leaves her comfortable life after seeing the moon-landing astronauts take their own giant leaps. By doing so, she enters a fast-changing world filled with unexpected encounters which make her realise just how exciting life can be. Lighting Designer Alex Musgrave comments: “My main brief for the show was to try and evoke the warm feeling of the late 60’s/ early 70’s American architecture whilst ensuring that Diana was always at the forefront of the narrative. I was also tasked with defining multiple different locations around the city of Chicago which Diana visits and my design had to make it clear to the audience where we physically were in the story”. 

   

   Although rehearsals took place in-person at the Southwark Playhouse’s rehearsal studio, the room capacity limit meant that Alex actually had to work entirely online. He explains: “For me, rehearsals were completely remote, either via Zoom or via videos of various sections of show. Working from the brief, I wanted to design a rig that was ultimately going to give me the greatest amount of flexibility possible. Knowing how many different locations within the story we were going to be visiting, I knew we would need a combination of moving lights and LED fixtures. The set design by Libby Todd is made up of two overlapping moons as the stage area, designed in the thrust configuration, along with a gorgeous wall that looks like every stone fireplace you would find in a 60/70’s era home”. 

   And while the production was going to be performed to a live audience, Alex and the team still had to adhere to the various restrictions in place. He explains: “One of the only major obstacles with this production was trying to mount a show whilst staying within the government guidelines. Singing to a live audience means the cast can’t be any closer than 3m. When you have audience on three sides, that immediately limits the stage area the cast can perform on. One of the many safety measures the Southwark Playhouse have in place are Perspex screens between each ticket booking, so the glare from these was something I had to consider when focusing the show. Similarly, like a lot of shows being made at the moment, there is also an option to live-stream the production so I had to take into account how the lighting would look on screen, as well as on stage”. 

   

   Knowing all of this, Alex reached out to WL’s Customer Service team to discuss the fixtures needed and the various options that were available. He explains: “After much discussion, I ended up using the ETC ColorSource profile range along with the JB Lighting – VaryLED A7 Zoom wash lights. The A7 Zooms had two uses. Some were allocated to provide backlight for the production and the others were placed in a front-of-house position and used in more of a follow-spot capacity. As such, they are able to track Diana throughout the entire show and are essentially in a different position for almost every single cue. They also zoom to a very nice half body size when I really needed to focus in on certain characters”.  

   He adds: “Because of the brief and the need for some distinction between things such as a lift and train carriages, I knew I needed a moving light with a framing system. I looked at various fixtures and decided to use the Robe DLS Profile fixture which was great as it fell below the weight limit for the rig at the Southwark Playhouse. The Robe DLS profile was placed fairly central as it was used for all of the specific moments which needed the framing system and also the times when I needed to add texture to a scene. In terms of the ColorSource Profiles, these were placed in a general pipe end position which gave me great flexibility and were able to be used as a full stage wash when needed”.     

   The show has now opened and will run until June 12^th.  

   Alex concludes: “It’s been great to be back working on a live show and we’re delighted with the response we’re received from audiences. I’d just like to say a big thank you to WL for their continued support throughout this production and look forward to working with them again in the future”. 

   Photos © Callum Heinrich