Tag Archive: Helen Maybanks

1. White Light Goes [BLANK] at the Donmar Warehouse

   3 December 2019 16:55 Leave a Comment

   

   White Light has supplied the lighting equipment for [BLANK] which recently ran at the Donmar Warehouse.

   [BLANK] is a theatrical provocation which marks 40 years of Clean Break; a theatre company that works with women affected by the criminal justice system. Featuring over 100 unnamed scenes, [BLANK] sees the director Maria Aberg choose thirty of these in order to create a unique production. Featuring an all-female cast and creative team, the show has a lighting design by Jess Bernberg. Jess comments: “After attending meetings with Maria and Rosie Elnile (Set Designer), we came to the decision to keep the aesthetic quite open. Whilst part of Rosie’s inspiration for the set was mother and baby units in women’s prison, we didn’t want to create any literal space, instead choosing practical lights to break up the space and adding a sense of uniformity to the lighting design”.

   

   With the production being such a unique construct, the layout was a factor Jess had to consider with her design. She explains: “We felt strongly the piece shouldn’t have an interval, so that it would deliver one strong theatrical punch. Maria had carefully arranged the scenes to achieve subtle narrative arcs that can be inferred by an audience but aren’t necessarily concrete, leaving it up to the audience to decide and hinting at the universality of the situations.  We actually discovered that the scenes fell into blocks which had distinct feelings, rather than each scene having a ‘location’”.

   Jess adds: “The first nine scenes felt stark and closed in; almost non-theatrical. A large-scene change then brings us into a new world with the full company of women on stage. Following this is the longest scene in the play: a 45 minute, meticulously-choreographed satirical dinner party. This felt like it needed a completely new feel as we enter into a world of relative luxury, Labneh and flatbreads. All the women you had seen before were on stage, some portraying characters completely different from what we had seen before. Maria and I had talked about Caravaggio-esque warmth and sculpting, but felt, in the space, this became too dreamlike and needed a sense of grounding and harsh reality”.

   

   To achieve all of these very specific looks, Jess approached WL who have supplied a range of her shows this year, including Out of Water (Orange Tree), And the Rest of Me Floats (Bush Theatre) and The Crucible (The Yard). Jess explains: “Most of the rig was Ayrton Ghiblis and ETC Lustr 2s, as well as CP61 par cans forming a toplight grid. The Ghiblis are wonderful moving lights, super quiet in terms of ambient noise which is very important for a space like the Donmar where audiences are just metres away from the units and there were many quiet, delicate scenes that can’t be disturbed with rig hum. Their framing shutters can do a full swipe across the beam which came in very handy for an effect recreating an alarm beacon created by my wonderful programmer Elliot Smith”.

   

   Jess used the Lustrs as a six part pipe end stage wash, and versatile crosslight on the upper level of the set where a projection screen position needed to be taken into account.

   This was the first time that Jess has worked at the Donmar Warehouse. She explains: “The Donmar space acts as almost in the round due to the deep, wide thrust. This means crosslight in the space is quite a specific focus, and acting right up next to audience on a raised stage means facelight while playing upstage can be tough; especially when vomitorium sight-lines aren’t what they seem. The space is actually a lot smaller than it feels, meaning tungsten units can happily sit at 30% to adequately light a scene, or take heavy gel. The in house profiles in the space are unusually 575W lamps instead of 750W for this very reason”.

   

   [BLANK] opened to rave reviews and played to sell out audiences before its run came to an end last weekend.

   Jess concludes: “I’m extremely proud to have worked on such an important production with a theatre company that creates brilliant work and genuinely leaves a long-lasting impact with all of the women it works with. I’d like to thank the brilliant in-house team, all of the other creatives along with WL for once again supplying me with the fixtures I needed”.

   Photos courtesy of Helen Maybanks.  

   
   
   

2. White Light Supplies The Ugly One at Park Theatre

   12 June 2017 08:27 Comments Off on White Light Supplies The Ugly One at Park Theatre

   Following its initial run at the Royal Court Theatre a decade ago, The Ugly One has recently returned to the capital in what is its tenth year anniversary. Currently running at the Park Theatre, this revival is being directed by JMK award-winner Roy Alexander Weise. As one of the leading lighting suppliers to London theatres, White Light has provided the lighting for this production.

   The Ugly One is written by Marius von Mayneburg and the lighting designer is Amy Mae, who has recently returned from New York having lit the critically-acclaimed Sweeney Todd at the Barrow Street Theatre. She comments: “The Ugly One is about identity, beauty standards, morals and technology. The technology aspect was really helpful in shaping our approach. The writing has a way of blending scenes together so a big question for the creative team was how to support these shifts. There are also a wide range of locations and contrasting situations featured in the piece. Therefore I needed a cover of light that could achieve all of these and have the ability to balance levels and colour as required”.

   

   Amy worked closely with Loren Elstein (Designer), Louise Rhoades-Brown (Projection Designer) and Giles Thomas (Sound Designer) to create a feel that encompassed their collective visions. Amy states: “The show is being performed in Park Theatre’s 90 space which is in the round. Therefore my biggest concern was ensuring I covered all areas as well as not wash out the projection! Similarly, during time in the space, Roy and I found that the lighting should help define the stranger, more surreal moments of the show from the more realistic lighting state that pervades throughout”.

   To achieve this, Amy approached WL and drew on the company’s extensive hire inventory. She states: “Moving lights were very useful for this design. The actors cover all areas and once we got into the space blocking needed to be changed so having something versatile was brilliant”. This versatility came from the GLP X4 Impressions which WL has invested in extensively. Amy comments: “The Impressions have a useful built in mode which allows you to change the pattern on the front of a light. This meant for certain scenes that took place in more corporate settings, I could create some interesting patterns to link with the feel of a particular scene. They also go from 7 to 50 degrees, which is perfect for small spotlights and stage washes where required”.

   Amy’s design also relied heavily on the use of LED tape. She states: “The tape was inspired by an image that Loren showed us of a rectangle with light coming from underneath which created a floating effect. It’s also been useful for transporting the audience across the worlds of the surgery, hotel, conference room and even in the surreal transitions. It’s been a great way to add saturated colour into the design”.

   Whereas this is the first time that Amy has lit a show at the Park Theatre, it also marks the first time that she has worked with projection. She adds: “Balancing light and projection has been a new experience for me but one I’ve really enjoyed. Louise has done an amazing job and her projections bring a whole new element to this classic piece. All of the creative team have been really open to one another’s suggestions and thoughts and I think that shows in the finished product”.

   The show opened last Friday to rave reviews. It will run until 24^th June.

   Photos courtesy of Helen Maybanks.