Let there be light

I must confess to not being exactly on top form when it came to designing and rigging the lighting for Reading Operatic Society‘s performance of Iolanthe at the Reading Central Salvation Army hall. A throat infection was not a good overture for my efforts but anyhow it all happened in the way that shows always manage to happen.

It was a new venue to Reading Operatic but not to me; my original touring PAR can rig of circa early 1980s vintage having been resident here for the past couple of decades. The original plan was to hire a lot of additional kit, fly some trusses to hang it all from and control it all with DMX, but that plan was changed and so I had to figure something out with 22 channels of dimming and just a couple of extra lanterns. Think I just about managed to prove less is more but I must confess going back to running a whole show on a two-deck preset board kept me on my toes.

Little bit busy with lighting in the near future. First in the Wilde at Bracknell next weekend to assist with the rig for Starmaker’s performance of Fame. Then to The Theatre @ The Oakwood Centre for Mostly G&S’s concert rendition of The Gondoliers on 26-27 March. Then back to the Salvation Army hall for a John Lewis fashion show on 10 April before designing the lighting for Sainsbury Singer’s performance of Beauty and the Beast at The Hexagon on 26-29 May.

Plus I really need to do a major overhaul of my lighting kit this summer. So plenty on.