Tag Archive: VL1000TS

1. White Light are Old Fools at Southwark Playhouse

   13 April 2018 08:25 Comments Off on White Light are Old Fools at Southwark Playhouse

   Having now finished its run at the Southwark Playhouse, Old Fools by Tristan Bernays tells the story of Tom and Viv, their love and the life they’ve shared together. Nominated for four OffWestEnd Awards, the show achieved critical acclaim and supported the charity Alzheimer’s Research UK. As a leading lighting supplier to London theatre, White Light was called upon to provide the lighting equipment.

   The lighting designer for the show is Peter Small, who is currently lighting the West End smash All or Nothing at the Ambassador’s Theatre. He comments: “The show focuses on Tom and Viv with particular focus on how Tom’s Alzheimer’s affects their relationship over the years. My brief was to light the memories and transitions; both of which had to correlate to Tom’s stage of Alzheimer’s. For instance, we cut to a youthful memory it’s bright and clear with lots of colour and possibility. When we go into a later memory, it’s fairly hollow and bleak.

   Peter adds: “Another key factor was ensuring that the lighting should have a sense of fluidity and movement to it. For instance, when Tom tries to recall a certain memory, the light literally gets more in focus around him before suddenly going soft again as he fails to grasp it”.

   To create his design, Peter approach WL to draw on the company’s extensive hire inventory. He explains: “I chose VL1000TS in order to supplement the in-house rig. The tungsten source and flexible colour, shutter and zoom range were extremely useful. I looked at using arc and LED but decided that the tungsten source was needed for the rather delicate touch required. Also, the 70° super zoom was key due to the low grid height to get the most out of the units as we were able to take one unit from a full stage wash to a tight special in a live move”.

   Old Fools was a little unique for Peter in the sense that there was no set designer. He states: “I asked for a pale coloured floor as it would allow me to do more with the lighting; letting me treat it as a cyc. Similarly, as the Southwark is a rather intimate space, this meant that the VL1000s are in close proximity to the audience. As a result, this meant that they were a lot more audible; something you don’t really want during quiet scenes. We soon discovered that this was due to the limitation of the 8bit control over the motors so, after a swift notes session translating all the mark times into fixture times, the problem disappeared”.

   Peter adds: “This show required a great ‘lightness of touch’ which could only be discovered after a lot of attendance in rehearsal and concept meetings. As a result, I had to put in a lot of time prior to the project in order to obtain the level of detail I was looking for”.

   Old Fools is one of several shows that WL has supplied at the venue over the past few months, including Angry, Dessert, The Life, Mother Courage and Her Children and Working.

   Peter comments: “I had a great time working at the Southwark Playhouse and the in-house team were nothing but helpful. I also want to say thanks once again to WL for their support on another of my productions”.

   Photos courtesy of Nat James.

2. It’s All or Nothing for White Light in West End

   22 February 2018 10:11 Comments Off on It’s All or Nothing for White Light in West End

   All or Nothing – The Mod Musical follows the rise and fall of the Small Faces; a band who encapsulated the mod era. The home-grown musical features a range of the band’s classic hits, including Itchycoo Park, Lazy Sunday and, of course, All or Nothing. Following its initial run at The Vaults in 2016, followed by a sell-out UK tour, the show opened last week at London’s Arts Theatre. Having supplied the show since its very first production, White Light has been called upon once again to provide the West End run.

   The Lighting Designer for All or Nothing is Peter Small, who has worked on the show since it first opened in 2016. He comments: “It’s fair to say the show has definitely grown and changed over time; so much so that it’s now a completely different production than the one seen at The Vaults. Every time we’ve remounted it for an extension or a new tour, we’ve always taken the opportunity to improve and refine our work; with the West End transfer being the biggest and loudest version yet”.

   As with every version of the show, Peter’s brief remained the same for the West End run: to be true to the music and the era in which it’s set. He explains: “This isn’t a rock show. Rather, it’s an equal balance between the ‘straight acting’ scenes alongside the music and dance sequences. For the acting scenes, we carefully choose the lighting depending on how we wanted each location to look (given the scenery doesn’t change). When we moved to a new location, we would either lead with a practical or an effect in order for the audience to identify with that location.

   He adds: “It’s the same for the music numbers. Each number has a very specific look that is not used again elsewhere. I also wanted to use the lighting to try and show the progression in the band’s career. For instance, in the early performances, there are some cheap-looking colour wheels. For the next phases, there is a mirror ball until it eventually leads to a full-blown concert. It’s about layering up the effects as we move through the tracks”.

   As the show entered the Arts Theatre, this obviously meant there had to be some additions to the previous rig. Peter explains: “Back in The Vaults, we had about 50 generics and very few moving lights. Today, we have a rig of 72 moving lights, 58 scrollers and over 114 generics – so it’s a slight increase! For a show like this, I looked to draw on equipment that I knew I could fully rely on. This included the GLP XBar 20s, ETC Revolution IM/SMs, VL1000TS, VL1100AS, VL3000Q, MAC 700, Robe Mini Me, Chroma-Q ColorForce 72 and, of course, a healthy dose of ETC Source Fours and Par Cans”.

   With the previous show closing at the Arts on the Saturday evening and All or Nothing opening the following Tuesday, this meant there was a very limited load-in time. Peter comments: “This wasn’t a straight remount of last year’s tour as we’d added additional effects and sequences, so the overall lighting plan needed completely updating. Although we had limited time in the space, I’d thankfully invested in the Capture software so was able to pre-viz a large majority of work ahead of time with my programmer Tom Davis; something that paid in dividends”.

   All or Nothing will run at the Arts Theatre until 11^th March. It was announced yesterday that it would continue its stay in the West End by transferring to the Ambassadors Theatre from 28^th March to 2^nd June.

   Having been nominated for two OffWestEnd Lighting Design Awards in the past month alone, All or Nothing marks Peter’s West End debut. He comments: “There is a certain level of expectation when you’re working in the West End for obvious reasons. Thankfully, I had a great team behind me which included Adam Squire, Tom Davis, Abbi Fearnley, Liam Cleary, Alex Gooding and Elliot Roberts who were nothing short of incredible throughout the entire production process. I always want to say thanks to Louise Hambley, Bryan Raven and everyone else at WL without whom this project wouldn’t have been possible”.

   Photos courtesy of Phil Weedon.