For the Royal Exchange Theatre, The Moving Light Company, together with White Light North supplied lighting designer Robert Bryan with four Vari-Lite VL1000s and four City Theatrical Autoyokes for a production of Othello. Both were specified for their tungsten light sources and low running noise - a particularly important consideration with the in-the-round arrangement of the Exchange. As with many other lighting designers, including Hugh Vanstone for his recent work at the RSC, on Breath Boom at the Haymarket and on Bombay Dreams at the Apollo Victoria, Bryan was also attracted by the VL1000's colour mixing, wide zoom range and framing shutters. Control in Manchester was from the theatre's in-house Strand 500-series consoles. The VL1000s proved so successful that the Exchange will continue to use them in their next main house production - Port, a new play by Simon Stephens, and for their Christmas show, Secret Heart.
At the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, Hartley Kemp specified an even more diverse collection of products: High End StudioColors, Strand Pirouettes and DHA Digital Light Curtains and Digital Beamlight 2s, to light The Tempest. The Moving Light Company is the only company in the world to stock the Digital Beamlight, having used them on a wide range of productions since their first appearance on Martin Guerre in 1996. This show was followed by Teeth 'n' Smiles, for which lighting designer Howard Harrison opted to keep the StudioColors and Pirouettes.
The Theatre Royal Plymouth's show required fewer lights but more customisation by The Moving Light Company, converting Martin Robocolor PRO400s into fibre optic lightsources for the theatre's touring production of The Tempest. This show was lit by Paul Keogen, who also lit the White Light-supplied production of Eden at the Arts Theatre in London.
(Lee Baldock)
