Fame – Starmaker hits the spot

Have just returned home from seeing Starmaker Theatre Company‘s production of Fame at the Wilde Theatre in Bracknell. It was really good to see a decent audience there and they were rewarded with an excellent performance by a fine cast, most of them under 18 years of age. Starmaker has apparently not been immune from the effects of recession on ticket sales but this is a company that really deserves to do well, whatever the economic weather.

I’d assisted with the lighting rig for this show last Sunday and so had half an idea of what to expect but the performance really exceeded my expectations. The cast were trained to a very high standard and the production values were similarly well honed. Interesting to see from the programme notes that this was the last show for some of the teenage leads; one can only hope their skills will percolate into other amateur or even professional companies.

Becca Wyard’s lighting design worked well; I really liked the opening scene, a whole sequence of lighting changes really setting the expectation for the rest of the evening. There was also neat follow-spotting throughout, subtle and effective.

It was good to see how well the six Showtec 3W LED PAR cans also worked on stage. Good beam spread, mostly flicker free fades and colour transitions and a reasonably punchy output. I’d trialled one of these late last year and suspected this model might well have made the LED PAR can come of age. Now got me thinking about possible uses on at least one forthcoming show…