Tag Archive: Will Burgher

1. White Light Spends A Day in the Death of Joe Egg

   23 October 2019 10:22 Leave a Comment

   

   White Light has supplied the lighting for A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, which has recently opened at Trafalgar Studios in London’s West End.

   First performed in 1967, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg tells the moving and heart-warming story of a couple trying to keep their family together whilst raising their only daughter who has cerebral palsy. Directed by Simon Evans, this latest revival stars Toby Stephens and Claire Skinner and features a lighting design by Prema Mehta. Prema comments: “Having discussed the script with Simon, it became clear that my brief was to ensure the lighting design supported the naturalistic setting of the family home, with juxtaposed moments of characters directly addressing the audience. We knew these two visuals of naturalism verses direct address had to have a completely different feeling to help the characters tell their story and form a relationship with the audience, as well as show their relationship with each other”.

   

   Prema worked closely with the show’s designer Peter McKintosh who created a naturalistic set of a small Victorian room which required naturalistic interior lighting along with the outside winter light which developed throughout the piece. With the show being set at Christmas, this also had an influence on Prema’s design. She explains: “As the LED rimmed set revolved to reveal the home, the very notion of the movement made me want to capture the feeling of a child shaking a glitter snow dome and looking into someone else’s world. I was inspired by the shards of light and reflections from tinsel to Christmas baubles and wanted to achieve an abstract wallpaper-like stained glass effect to show light shards which supported the revolving moment of the set”.

   Once she’d decided on the look of her design, Prema approached WL to supply her with the equipment she needed. Prema explains: “Supporting the interior with practicals, naturalistic kitchen and hallway lights bleeding down the staircase all felt key to the set. Working a general cover to support the practicals was important, but I’ve really enjoyed using the GLP X4 Bars to offer flexibility in terms of colour and zoom which enabled me to utilise the rig to its full capacity. I opted for Martin MAC Viper Performances as our moving lights and ETC Source 4 LED Lustr+ which I found to have great intensity and colour mixing to provide both saturated and pastel tones”.

   

   A Day in the Death of Joe Egg marks Prema’s West End lighting debut along with the first time she’s worked at Trafalgar Studios. She explains: “The in-house crew at Trafalgar were brilliant throughout the process, taking a real interest and open to exploring new ideas during previews as we saw how audiences were responding. I’m also really proud that we utilised the limited wing space to ensure the production values remained high with a set that rotated 360° with trucks, lighting ladders, exits and entrances. We also worked through the logistics to enable full access to Storme Toolis who played Joe, showing how accessibility is something that can and should be implemented for those working in theatre”.

   The show has now opened and will run until 30^th November 2019.

   Prema concludes: “I’m really proud of this poignant and moving show and for being able to play a part in it. I had a brilliant team with me, including Stu Meech, Adam Killey, Will Burgher and Charlotte McAdam, as well as great support once again from WL”.

   Photos courtesy of Marc Brenner.

2. White Light Supplies Custody UK Tour

   12 June 2019 16:23 Leave a Comment

   

   White Light has recently supplied the lighting equipment for the UK tour of Custody, a new-play looking at the issue of ‘stop and search’ within the BAME community.

   Custody was first created back in 2017 by theatre company Urban Wolf. The story focuses on what the mother, brother, sister and lover of a man that has been killed in police custody go through after his death. Due to its urgent issues, it’s been revived for a 2019 run. It features a lighting design by Will Burgher, who comments: “This is a highly emotional show which offers an honest portrayal of what people go through in this situation. During the rehearsal process, Urban actually brought in people who’d experienced what the characters had and were able to workshop these real experiences into the show. With that in mind, it’s been a really special, poignant production to work on”.

   Will collaborated closely with director Gbemisola Ikumeloand and designer Fran Horler to develop the look and feel needed for the show. He explains: “From the start, we wanted to use a lot of shadow and silhouette. As large portions of Fran’s set are white, it gave great scope to use deep saturated colours for different locations as well as stark white tones to give the sense that the play is happening in a police custody suite. There were also moments we needed to really suggest an exact location or time of day; something which was lighting-led on such an abstract canvas”.

   

   Having used WL on several other projects, Will approached the company again for Custody. “From a practicality point of view, I wanted to keep the lighting rig to around 40 lights or less given there was a very short fit up time in each venue. With this scale of touring, there isn’t an unlimited budget so we toured some profiles with scrollers as our side light and a couple of FOH units. Scrollers are becoming less and less common  so it was actually a great experience using them again!.

   He continues: “The shift of colour temperature as a tungsten lamp dims down is such useful tool. Alongside this, we used some Elation LED pars on one of our truck pieces as there are various moments within the show that require actors to stand within it and be lit. These also proved useful to create the various effects which took place around the play’s main action”.

   As the show visited several venues, this meant that Will had to develop a rig that would be suitable for the different specifications of each space. He comments: “Studio tours can often be somewhat challenging. For instance, the Studio theatre at the Crucible was in a very different format to the B2 in Coventry in terms of presenting an end on performance. As a result, I had to redraw some of the plans in order to ensure certain shots would work and that the audience would experience the same show in each city”.

   

   The play opened at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry before touring to the Crucible in Sheffield, the Lawrence Batley in Huddersfield before arriving at the Ovalhouse in London. It has received critical acclaim for its approach to such a vital subject.

   Will concludes: “It’s been a privilege to be involved in such an important project and begin conversations around an issue that isn’t often discussed. I’d like to thank WL for being so supportive of this production and making the process of hiring my equipment such an easy one”.

   Photos courtesy of David Fawbert.

3. White Light Goes on Summer Holiday with Wyvern Theatre

   5 September 2017 15:20 Comments Off on 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.