050 REPORT
THEATRE 503
Company: Philips Selecon Location: London, UK
For Lighting Designers Jo Town and Alex Wardle, each of whom recently lit shows at London’s Theatre 503, LED technology from Philips Selecon played an impor- tant role in setting mood and atmosphere in a venue where space and power are at a premium. Respected UK Lighting Designer Johanna Town used Philips Selecon PL1 LED luminaires to great effect on Wiki play, Man in the Middle by Ron Elisha. The play is a fast paced journey through the key events of Julian Assange’s turbu- lent life. Wiki style scenes move from boardrooms to bedrooms, offices to torture chambers, and student flats to hotel rooms, no scene was set for long. This presented Town with a tough job - to create convincing environments for each scene while ensuring they flowed neatly from one to the next. A back and front-lit rear projection screen is the key feature. Time, mood and atmosphere of each scene was set up using this element. “I lit the screen from behind with colour mixing fluorescents and from the front with the PL1s,” explained Town. “I also used the PL1s to provide a strong backlight wash, which continued the backlight colour spill of the screen downstage. Colour matching was very simple and though the PL1s are considerably brighter than the fluorescents, they worked seamlessly together to give a very even look.” Set on a relatively small stage there was also little room for dramatic scene changes so lighting was key. “Because we were working in a small space I used the PL1s on the full 50° flood,” explained Town. “I was a little concerned that I might lose light output but not so, the PL1s punched well over everything else in the rig, fantastic! The extreme zoom capability from 14° - 50° came as a complete surprise and works well at either end of the scale.” A number of scenes demanded subtle use of colour and Town used lighter grey blues and colour correction tones for some of back light washes: “I found the units were equally as effective using these colours and to my satisfaction there was very little light loss. They’re easy to rig - pretty much plug and play. Having discovered how good the PL1s are, I can’t wait to see what the PL3 LEDs might do!” A lighting designer that already knows what the PL3s can do is Alex Wardle who is both a theatre consultant for Charcoalbue and a lighting designer in his own right. Wardle recently lit Kefi Chadwick’s play ‘Mathematics of the Heart’ at Theatre 503
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and was faced with the same issues of a tight space for rigging lights. Directed by Donnacadh O’Briain, Set Designer Signe Beckmann located the play on the top floor of a north London flat. The dominating features of each scene were two very obvious skylights. Wardle used these as vehicles to establish time of day, place and indeed on occasion the mood of the piece. “An early lighting design issue was focusing enough light through the skylights, with limited space behind them,” explained Wardle. “Signe’s set extended up to grid height so we wanted to avoid rigging theatre lanterns over the stage. This meant we had to focus light through the skylights. Not only did it need to illuminate the skylights but it also provided backlight for the actors. I knew that whatever we used would have to have some punch, plus we needed a 60° beam to just about cover each skylight with a single unit.” Wardle had used other LED luminaires before and had been impressed, however the multi-coloured shadow that some cause would have been a problem for this show. “The beam would need to be homogenous,” continued Wardle. “The problem was ultimately solved using the Selecon PL3, which features an impressive punch and generates fantastic colour rendering from the saturated to the subtle.” Also an important consideration in a small theatre is noise so fans were a concern. Wardle decided to test run the luminaire in his garage and was impressed with the results: “Grant Bales-Smith from Philips dropped off two PL3s, which I set up in my garage. I found the fade to be smooth, the beam consistent, colours excellent, and fan noise quiet enough for Theatre 503, as long as the units weren’t running flat-out.” While the rig comprised a number of other practical elements and lighting fixtures all colour variation came from the PL3s. However Wardle faced a further challenge on site: “Even pushing the PL3s right up to the ceiling - thanks to Doughty’s Slimline Quick Trigger clamp and magic arms - I couldn’t get quite the throw I’d hoped for. This meant I had to resort to wrapping the PL3 noses in frost in order to spread the beam enough. Despite this the punch through the skylights was more than capable of lighting whole scenes with just a bit of touching in from the front, making the PL3 a very useful piece of kit.”
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