Tag Archive: Patrick Woodroffe

1. White Light Supplies the Lighting for Mamma Mia – The Party

   30 October 2019 11:04 Leave a Comment

   

   White Light has recently supplied the lighting equipment for Mamma Mia – The Party; an immersive theatrical dining extravaganza based around the music of ABBA.

   

   Created by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus, Mamma Mia – The Party transports its audience to the island of Skopelos where taverna owner Nikos and his family present their story in a glorious night of song, dance and feasting. Running for four hours, the show is packed full of ABBA’s best-known songs which are performed by actors and musicians around the audience members. The show was first performed in Sweden and has now arrived in London, where it is running at The O2, Greenwich.

   The Lighting Designer for the show is the award-winning Patrick Woodroffe. He comments: “For Mamma Mia – The Party, we wanted our audience to truly believe they were in a Greek taverna on Skopelos. Bengt Fröderberg’s set design was so authentic and, for the first act, we wanted to mirror that with very realistic dappled lighting that slowly changed colour temperature as dusk falls. As the piece progresses into Act 2, we enter into some of the fantasy scenes and the lighting starts to become more theatrical and abstracted. Finally, in Act 3, we make an unashamed rock/pop concert!”.

   

   To create the specific rig needed, Patrick approached WL to provide the lighting equipment. He states: “On a practical level, we wanted to have all LED fixtures so maintenance would be easy for the technical crew over the entire run of the show. With this in mind, we used a mixture of GLP S350s, Clay Paky Axcor Wash 300s, GLP X4Ls, GLP X4Ss and GLP KNV Dots. In addition, there were strings of festoon, fairy lighting and a complete fibre optic starcloth that played above everything else; as well as over 50 custom pixel windows”.

   Unlike a traditional show, Mamma Mia – The Party is a theatrical dining experience, meaning the performance takes place across the whole space, fully immersing its audience members. As such, Patrick had to achieve the correct balance between lighting the performers along with the room itself. He explains: “We made an important choice early in the design process to replace the followspots with a tracking system that would use fixtures from the overhead rig to follow the performers. This was a creative, as well as a budget-driven, decision. The action takes place all throughout the venue – on the main floor, on a mini stage at one end of the room and also on the stairways and balconies. There wasn’t a single place where a followspot would have been able to reach all of these positions. We identified the Zaktrack system from Vienna as the most suitable solution for this and, although it took some time to tune the system because of the complexities of the space, the result was very successful. We can follow a performer right across the room, fading out one fixture and bringing in another as the scenery dictates. Not only that but we can do this with up to five performers at a time; something that happens more than once during the show”.

   

   Mamma Mia – The Party has now opened to rave reviews and is booking into 2020.

   Patrick concludes: “This was a show that required a lot of rehearsal and programming to achieve the theatrical effects needed but the end result is a completely unique theatrical experience. I’d like to thank Rob Casey, who was my Associate on the show, Chris Hirst who programmed the grandMA and Johanna Jenson, who was our Script Supervisor”.

   Photos by Helen Maybanks

   Creative Team Credits

   Director: Roine Soderlundh, Stacey Haynes
   Musical Director: John Donovan
   Choreographer: Roine Soderlundh, Stacey Haynes
   Set: Bengt Froderberg
   Lighting: Patrick Woodroffe
   Sound: Gareth Owen
   Costume: Annsofi Nyberg
   General Manager: Amanda Murray
   Costume/Hair Supervisor: Martin Rodges
   Production Manager: Stuart Tucker

2. Patrick Woodroffe Wins WhatsOnStage Awards Best Lighting Design

   26 February 2018 16:37 Comments Off on Patrick Woodroffe Wins WhatsOnStage Awards Best Lighting Design

   

                                       Patrick Woodroffe won Best Lighting Design

   Last night saw the return of the annual WhatsOnStage Awards. Taking place at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London’s West End, the Awards are the only major accolades in the UK where the audience are the judges. This year’s event was attended by the biggest names in the theatre industry and was presented by Trevor Dion Nicholas (Aladdin‘s Genie) and Vikki Stone. As the leading lighting supplier to West End theatre, White Light sponsored the Best Lighting Design Award which was won by Patrick Woodroffe for his work on Bat Out of Hell.

   Running at the London Coliseum last year, Bat Out of Hell uses the music of Meatloaf’s iconic album to tell the story of rebellious lead Strat who falls in love with Raven, the beautiful daughter of the most powerful man in post-apocalyptic Obsidian. It was lit by Patrick Woodroffe whose career spans over forty years. His work covers the fields of contemporary and classical music, opera, film, television, architecture and musical theatre.

   Bryan Raven, WL’s Managing Director, comments: “We were delighted to once again sponsor this year’s Best Lighting Design Award. We have worked with Patrick on several projects now, including the recent tour of The Band along with the Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains exhibition at the V & A Museum, and it’s fantastic that he has won this accolade for the first time”.

   The biggest winner of the evening was 42nd Street, which won Best Musical Revival, Best Choreography, Best Costume Design and Best Set Design. The show was also nominated for the Best Lighting Design Award by Peter Mumford (you can read his interview about the production here). Other notable winners included David Tennant for Best Actor in a Play, Olivia Colman for Best Actress in a Play, The Ferryman for Best New Play, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie for Best New Musical and Sonia Friedman for Services to Theatre.

   

   The WL team with lighting designers Charlie Morgan Jones, Prema Mehta, Nic Farman, Declan Randall and Jess Bernberg

   Two new awards were also presented this year. These included the Best Original Cast Recording which went to Les Misérables. There was also the Best Show Poster Award which went to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. WL supplies the lighting for both productions.

   WhatsOnStage’s Chief Operating Officer Sita McIntosh comments: “2017 was such a strong year for theatre, and it’s wonderful to see such a broad cross section of work recognised in this year’s awards – many of the nominees were running neck and neck during the voting process due to the strength of talent represented.”

   Bryan adds: “The WhatsOnStage Awards are truly unique in the sense that they are one of very few that are solely decided by the audience. Ultimately, shows are there to serve their audiences and it only makes sense that the work/performances that they admired the most should receive recognition. It also marks our continued commitment to celebrating the very best of the theatre industry, as seen with our sponsorship of the OffWestEnd Awards and the Tonic Theatre Awards; both recognising theatre at all levels”.

3. White Light Joins The Band as it Begins UK Tour

   27 September 2017 08:37 Comments Off on White Light Joins The Band as it Begins UK Tour

   Written by Tim Firth and featuring music by Take That, The Band tells the story of five 16-year-old friends in 1992, who idolise their favourite band, and follows them as adults as they try to meet their pop heroes. The production will star the winners of the smash-hit BBC series Let It Shine who will play the singers of the band. The show opened yesterday evening at the Manchester Opera House to rave reviews and will now tour the UK. White Light has been called upon to provide the lighting equipment.

   The Lighting Designer for the show is Patrick Woodroffe and his Associate is Rob Casey. Rob comments: “Working closely with Projection Designer Luke Halls, our role on the show was to aid the storytelling by guiding the audience, in terms of progressing the timeline as well as highlighting moments of particular importance. Similarly, there are two large concerts in each time period so we needed a lighting rig that could easily replicate these”.

   Unlike other musicals, The Band combines classic drama with recreated pop concerts on stage; something which Patrick and Rob were very conscious of when designing their rig. Rob explains: “The overhead LX trusses are deliberately silver as one of them is in view for the concert numbers. We also have two large stadium truss frames, which we use a lot for the 1992 concert, along with an LX bar full of Sharpy Washes that we utilise for the modern-day concert; with the equipment helping to define the separate timelines”.

   To achieve their ideal rig, Patrick and Rob approached WL and drew on the company’s extensive equipment inventory. Rob comments: “The main rig is made up of MAC Viper Wash DXs, MAC Viper Performances, MAC TW1s and Aura XBs. The set design is a series of almost Hockney-esque polaroid frame projection surfaces which are reflected on the floor. The Viper Performances were perfect to form the shape of the rooms used in each scene, cutting out other parts of the stage. The Viper DXs are the workhorse of the rig in terms of general washes and the barn door feature was essential in keeping light off the various projection surfaces.

   He continues: “The Auras were spec’d in order to give thick, saturated colours as a base level during the production numbers. The MAC TW1s do a lot of work in terms of face lighting. We were very conscious that the show needed to be as tourable as possible, which is why we have a minimal front of house rig so that we can replicate the show on each move”.

   As with most touring productions, it was having to adapt to the various venues which would prove an obstacle that Patrick and Rob had to overcome: “With this show in particular, space is at a premium due to the grids being filled with set, scenery and projectors. Therefore, we worked closely with Production Electrician Chris Mence who was fantastic in helping make sure the show was modular whilst still allowing us to achieve the tricky angles and shots required”.

   The show has now opened in Manchester to rave reviews. It will then move onto the Lyceum Theatre in Sheffield before touring the rest of the country, concluding at the Edinburgh Playhouse in July 2018.

   Rob comments: “WL has been great, as always, with this production. They have constantly adapted to any changes in the rig and have been extremely accommodating throughout. This is a brilliant show and we look forward to sharing it with the rest of the UK”.

   Photos courtesy of Matt Crockett.