Tag Archive: pantomime lighting

1. It’s Panto Season Again for White Light. Oh Yes It Is!

   12 December 2019 14:39 Leave a Comment

   

   White Light is supplying the lighting equipment to more than 25 pantomimes and Christmas shows this festive season.

   For many theatres, Christmas marks their busiest time of the year, as stages up and down the country fill with dames, beanstalks, ugly sisters and flying carpets. A firm favourite in the panto world is Peter Pan and WL is supplying productions at Birmingham Rep, Brighton Metropole, Epsom Playhouse and Tunbridge Wells’ Assembly Hall Theatre. The production at Epsom Playhouse is being lit by Simon Banks, who comments: “My brief for the show was actually very open, with the only request being that we managed to get across a period feel for the more traditional story elements whilst being able to go ‘full panto’ for the big production numbers and set pieces. When working on pantomime, I’ve often found that less is more and you can really play with the audience’s responses by more traditional creative means such as shifts of mood and emphasis”.

   In terms of other popular productions, WL is going to the ball with Cinderella at Norwich Theatre Royal, Cambridge Arts Theatre and The Hexagon, Reading, whereas Jack and the Beanstalk is entertaining audiences at Harlow Playhouse, Eastbourne Theatres and The Harlequin Theatre, Redhill. Snow White is playing at Pavilion Theatre Rhyl and the Beck Theatre, Hayes whereas Aladdin is at The Anvil, Basingstoke. Mother Goose is thrilling audiences at the Millfield Theatre and The Marlowe, Canterbury, whilst Robin Hood is on stage at Salisbury Playhouse. WL is also supplying several versions of A Christmas Carol, including an immersive production at IMMERSIVE LDN along with a version at the Old Vic, which WL is supplying for the third year running.

   

   Having previously lit Jack and the Beanstalk at Salisbury Playhouse, lighting designer Nic Farman is back at the theatre this year to light Robin Hood. He comments: “With Robin Hood, I was tasked with using bright and bold colours to help create the world of Sherwood Forest and the Sheriff of Nottingham’s Castle. With the design relying on saturated colours and bright beams, I knew I wanted a flexible and dynamic rig. Overhead was a combination of Mac III Profiles and GLP X4 Washes which gave me great options for colour and gobo washes. A side light and pipe end rig of ETC ColorSource Profiles allowed me to have a fully flexible stage wash which was combined with Chroma-Q Color Force 12 and 72s to light the portals and cloth tops. At front of house, there were a number of Martin MAC Viper Performances to give me a full stage and cloth gobo wash. All of these allowed me to achieve the bold looks I wanted; something that lighting a panto often encourages you to do”.

   Alongside pantomimes, many theatres are also staging more traditional Christmas shows. One of these is Treasure Island, which is a Bolton Octagon Theatre production being performed at the Macron Stadium. The lighting designer is Johanna Town, who comments: “My brief for this show was to light the piece as naturally as possible and treat most of the song changes with soft shifts. The venue, which was obviously not your traditional theatre space, had a false stage with no access equipment allowed. As such, all the overhead rig had to be moving lights and due to power requirements, had to be almost all LED. I chose ETC LED profiles and Auras as my main wash lights and then had some GLP X Bars as overhead toplight to work in the songs and give a soft wash for the scenes. I also added Vipers for additional atmosphere. Similarly, the scenery was a large landscape flatage representing walls and clouds and mountains, which was then washed using Robert Juliat Dalis 860s due to their incredible short throw”. 

   For Johanna, working on a show like this not only varies from a standard theatrical production in terms of the creative brief, but also due to the impact it can have: “For Christmas shows, it’s vital that you make it exciting for its young audience, introduce lots of looks and images they can take away, and hopefully initiate a love for theatre and live performance. I think any show for children should feel exciting and have lots of imagination for them to enjoy; which is the pleasure of designing a Christmas show”. 

   

   Another show that WL is supplying the lighting for is The Nutcracker which is currently running at the Theatre Royal Portsmouth. Lighting Designer Adam King takes us through his process: “Part of my brief is transporting the audience into the world of the Nutcracker from the moment they walk into the auditorium; something I’m able to achieve by softening the house light system and adding more colour. In terms of the show itself, my main role was to make each location featured feel ‘magical’ every time the characters visited. As the set remains largely the same, it’s my job to make sure the audience followed the narrative through the changes in light; as well as offer those moments of magic throughout”.

   Whilst WL is supplying a host of Christmas shows this year, the company is still extremely busy with non-festive productions. In the West End alone, the company is providing the lighting for a multitude of newly-opened shows, including Teenage Dick at the Donmar Warehouse, Amélie at The Other Palace, Touching the Void at the Duke of York’s, Cyrano de Bergerac at the Playhouse along with the soon-to-open Les Misérables at the recently refurbished Sondheim Theatre. The company is also supplying a range of festive events, such as the numerous outdoor ‘Christmas at’ which include Bedgebury, Belton, Blenheim, Dunham Massey, Edinburgh, Kew Gardens and Stourhead.

   WL’s Managing Director Bryan Raven comments: “It’s been another incredibly busy year here at WL in which we’ve cemented our position as the leading lighting supplier to West End and UK touring theatre. It’s a fitting end to a great twelve months to be working across the country on a range of festive shows, supplying lighting designers with the exact equipment they need. We’d like to say thanks to all of those who’ve drawn on our services in 2019 and we look forward to working with you once again in the new year”.

   Photos courtesy of The Other Richard and Natalie Gee.

2. Oh Yes It is Panto Season for White Light

   13 December 2018 11:36 Leave a Comment

   

   With the festive season now upon us, theatre stages up and down the country are being filled with dames, beanstalks, flying carpets and glass slippers. As a leading lighting supplier to West End and UK touring theatre, White Light is once again suppyling a range of pantomimes this Christmas.

   Pantomimes are many venue’s biggest production of the year, with these classic childhood stories often starring household names. An all-time favourite is Aladdin and, this year, WL is supplying several versions of the show, including one at Hackney Empire which is lit by David Howe. He comments: “Hackney Empire’s Aladdin evolved a lot in the rehearsal process, with a lot new music being written specifically for this production. My brief, as ever, was to enhance the whole look of the show and help the audience focus on each story-telling moment. When it comes to equipment, it’s not actually about the flashiest new kit or what’s just arrived on the shelf. Rather, it’s about drawing on fixtures that you know will be reliable and able to cope with 12 performances a week – something WL has in abundance”.

   WL is also supplying Aladdin in Cambridge, Crawley, Norwich, Yeovil and Swindon, with the Wyvern Theatre production starring EastEnders legend Adam Woodyatt. The Lighting Programmer for the show is Eden Thornton, who comments: “I’ve now worked on ten pantos over the last six years. They can often be hard work as you’re trying to create a big show in what’s not a great amount of time. That said, it’s very exhilarating. It’s also important to have a good team around you as well as the services of a reliable hire company; hence we try and use WL whenever we can”.

   Other popular titles that WL is supplying include Snow White in Bolton and Malvern, along with The Wizard of Oz at the Birmingham Rep and Bolton Octagon. Cinderella is going to the ball in Canterbury, Eastbourne, Guildford and Portsmouth whereas Jack and the Beanstalk is sprouting on stage in both Epsom and Watford. Peter Pan is also flying into Theatre Royal Portsmouth as well as the Park Theatre, London, where Nic Farman is the lighting designer. Nic comments: “I’ve worked on a couple of pantos now and, from my experience, you can really be bold and create beautiful, colourful stage pictures which captivate the audience’s imagination. Peter Pan at the Park Theatre is actually a more traditional version of the play and my role is to use light to create the locations that appear throughout the course of the show. We rely heavily on saturated colour and texture from gobo washes to help transform the relatively small stage for each part of the play. The team at WL have been great in providing me with the fixtures I need to take the audience to places such as Neverland, Mermaids Lagoon and Captain Hook’s Pirate Ship”.

   WL also supplied the lighting for Sinbad at the Beck Theatre for BACCES: the British Airways Cabin Crew Entertainment Society which puts on a yearly panto, and in its history has raised over £1M for worthy causes. The Lighting Designer was Jonathan Haynes, who states: “Compared to a traditional play, panto is generally very flashy and colourful, jam packed with fun where anything goes! Basically nothing is off limits, so long as it also helps to tell the story! With this show in particular, as the cast are full-time cabin crew for British Airways, there were only a limited number of rehearsals so I had to have a design that was flexible and could change. For instance, the first tech run was the first time I actually saw the characters’ lavish costumes and so I very quickly had to tune the colours to compliment these; hence it was vital I had equipment that offered versatility”.

   The busy panto season is a fitting conclusion to what’s been an extremely busy 2018 for WL, who have supplied the lighting on a range of theatre smashes including Company, The Band, Tina – The Musical, The Inheritance, The Pinter Season alongside long-running hits such as Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Aladdin, Matilda and Les Misérables.

   WL’s Managing Director Bryan Raven comments: “It’s been another great year in which we’ve continued working on shows of all sizes all across the country. We are now looking forward to 2019 where we will continue our investment in both the latest technology and expert staff in order to offer lighting professionals the level of service they’ve come to expect from us”.