Andy immediately thought of Robe again after pioneering the large scale use of LED moving and static lighting luminaires in commercial panto for Dick Whittington last year at High Wycombe, when he was approached to light another popular fairy-tale story laced with slapstick humour, hi-jinks and audience interaction.
One of the classic references to this Brothers Grimm story is the 1937 Disney animated musical fantasy film, and Andy "wanted to bring that truly 'Disneyesque' surface optimism and style to lighting this production" which entailed the application of "Lots of colour, definition and attention to detail as well as ensuring that the characters are beautifully lit, balanced and immediately recognizable".
Due to the tight stage and wing space at the Grand Theatre - an original Matcham designed venue opened in 1894 and now Grade II Listed - the set primarily relies on flown cloths rather than large elaborate scenic pieces, which also puts more emphasis on the lighting generally.
The FOH circle was the starting point for fixture placement and here are two Robe DL4Ss which take care of texturing all the back-cloths with gobos and throwing general light and colour onto the stage. Andy is making the most of the framing shutters to keep the lighting tightly focused on the stage, trimming off any spillage onto the pros arch.
"They are well bright enough to be seen above the static traditional profiles I am using onstage for key light," he comments.
On the pros booms either side of the stage are two Robe LEDWash 600s, two LEDBeam 100s and three PARFect 100s. The higher positioned PARfects colour all the cloths and combine with more PARFect 100s in the side-stage shin-buster position which cut across the Dwarves when they are onstage. The fixtures' excellent CTO correction is spot-on for providing warm low-level kickers.
The advanced bar features two Robe 600E Spots, used for specials, pick-ups and to assist the front gobo coverage.
Centre stage at the front on the floor is a MiniMe LED effects projector which has been loaded with custom video content for this show, projected onto the mirror gauze when the Evil Queen is asking the Mirror about her chances of winning the attentions of Prince Charming.
Moving back upstage, LX1 had a 600E Spot rigged right in the centre flanked by a pair of LEDWash 600s and then a pair of ColorSpot 575E ATs offstage.
LX2 contains another four ColorSpot 575E ATs, with a DL4F Wash LED fresnel dead centre and six PARfect 100s.
On LX3 are five Pointes and another 12 x PARFect 100s, six fitted with 20 degree diffusion for back lighting the upstage action, and the other six with 40 degree diffusion, which bounce nicely off the rear cyc and set pieces.
Down at deck level, two booms each side of stage are both populated with another three PARFect100s (12 in total) with the 7 degree fixed beam angle ... selected because they have to push through the tiniest gaps in the set.
All lighting was programmed by Andy on an Avolites Tiger Touch 2 which is being looked after by the Grand Theatre's house LX crew for the run which finishes in January. The Robe fixtures were supplied by Enlightened Lighting from Bristol with support from Robe UK.
(Jim Evans)
