White Light Goes on Summer Holiday with Wyvern Theatre

Every year the Wyvern Theatre in Swindon runs its own Summer Youth Project. The aim of the Project is to provide up to 200 youngsters aged 9 – 21 with the opportunity of working in a professional theatre. The two-week project culminates in five performances of a full-scale musical under the supervision of a professional creative team. Having supplied last year’s production of Grease, White Light was called upon to provide the lighting equipment on this year’s production of Summer Holiday.

Summer Holiday is the theatre adaptation of the classic British film starring Sir Cliff Richard. The show first ran at the Apollo Theatre in the West End in 1997 and has undergone constant revivals ever since. The Lighting Designer for the Wyvern Theatre production was Will Burgher. He comments: “I’d never seen the show before but it’s a really fun piece filled with a very upbeat Swinging Sixties soundtrack. There is a lot of travelling in the show – hence the reason why we used three double decker buses!”.

With the show taking place in a variety of locations, this was something that Will had to incorporate into his design. He comments: “David Ashley, the director, and I really wanted to create a sense of travelling and use the light to signify the various locations which the characters travel to. For instance, the show starts in a rather rainy London before moving through to France, Switzerland, Italy and Greece. I also had to create the sensation of movement for the bus driving along as well as provide the classic hits with a colourful rock ‘n’ roll feel”.

To achieve this, Will approached WL and worked closely with WL’s Customer Services Co-ordinator Simon Arnold in order to obtain the fixtures necessary for his design. He explains: “The main profile fixture was the ever-trusty Martin Professional MAC 700. This fixture is an absolute workhorse and was used to its full potential on this show, working on both the animation wheel for rain effects as well as backlighting the bus windows. I also used 8 x Colour Kinetics Colour Blaze 48s which did a superb job of evenly washing the upstage gauze.

He continues: “The main washlight was provided by 10 x GLP X4 Washes. They had a phenomenal zoom range and for the sidelight weather it has a brilliant saturated colour. Similarly, their soft pastel allowed for extremely smooth transitions between the various locations used throughout. I also drew on around 50 x par cans for cross lighting which created a sunlight effect along with 40 x ETC Source Fours for the main front lighting”.

The show took place from 24^th – 26^th August and sold out during its three day run.  The Summer Youth Project at Wyvern Theatre marks one of several similar projects that WL has supported over the summer months.

Simon Arnold comments: “While we are still a leading lighting supplier to the biggest West End and UK touring productions, we are passionate about supporting shows at all levels. Projects such as the Summer Youth Group offer a fantastic opportunity for local youngsters to get involved with a professional theatre and this is something we’re delighted to be involved with”.

Will concludes: “I have used WL for several years now and the level of service and quality of equipment has always been exceptional. They were extremely helpful on this production and I am very grateful”.

Photos courtesy of Elmar Rubio.