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HSL supplies lights to ‘War of the Worlds’

HSL supplies lights to ‘War of the Worlds’
HSL supplies lights to ‘War of the Worlds’

Blackburn, UK based lighting and visuals specialist HSL supplied lighting and production rigging for the theatrical staging of Jeff Wayne’s 1978 album ‘War of the Worlds’ (WoTW) at the Dominion Theatre, Tottenham Court Road, London, produced by Bill Kenwright. The work is based on HG Wells’ 1879 novel about a Martian invasion and has the additional resonance of being played completely with a mix of orchestral and electronic musicians conducted by Wayne himself.

 

Directed by Bob Tomson, it’s the first such presentation of the work, which is well known as an arena touring show, with a star studded cast onstage, narrated by Liam Neeson - who appears via video - and a technical and creative team that includes lighting designed by Tim Oliver and set by Ric Lipson for Stufish. HSL's John Slevin, project managing the account, worked closely on WoTW with Emma Nolan, HSL’s account handler for all the Kenwright productions for which they are a technical supplier.

 

They used a mix of the Dominion’s house lighting bars and installed pre-rigged trusses to provide additional lighting positions where needed. LX Bar 1 is split into three sections all independently hung on two Kinesys motors each. LX 2 and 3 are the house bars and LX 4 and 5 are pre-rigged trusses sub-hung from house bars which also move, but manually. LX 6 is just downstage of the cyc.

 

Stage right and left Boom 1s are also vertical sections of pre-rigged truss, and lighting fixtures on the other side booms are either secured to ladders, bars or other house positions. Two advanced trusses have been flown for the show and the circle and balcony fronts are utilized for additional lighting positions.

 

Around the audience, 12 x Mac Aura LED washes are installed on custom brackets to assist with special effects. Tim Oliver chose both Martin and Robe moving lights. Martin MAC Viper Performances are the main profiles, with 21 dotted all over the side booms and LX bars. Thirteen MAC 3 Performances on the two advance trusses are used for most of the specials on individual performers, with another four on the circle front to texture the pros arch with gobo looks.

 

Eight Robe MMX Spots on LX 2 provide backlight specials and treatment. These were chosen for their multi-functionality, as were 20 x MMX WashBeams, with 12 located above the band risers on LX 4 and 5 and the balance (of WashBeams) on LX 1 for general stage washes and cross lighting. Three Robe Pointes on drop bars do the heat Ray's emanating from the Martian Fighting Machines (MFMs - also called Tripods in the original HG Wells story).

 

Twenty-four GLP Impression X4s are ensconced on the side ladders and used to shoot across the stage, with another five X4Ss running around the stage lip in the footlights position. HSL purchased 50 new ProLights Eclipse FC LED profiles for the project which have an RGBL (lime) colour mixing system. They are on the side ladders as principal side lighting units at shin, mid and high positions, all with a frost filter for additional diffusion.

 

The band are back-lit with 15 x Robe CycFX 8s on LX 6 with another 9 CycFX 8s rigged on LX 2 to backlight the whole downstage area. Twenty-two Philips Nitro strobes are also used, with 12 around the pros arch firing into the audience and the rest scattered around the rig. Dispersed around the band risers are ProLights COB LED PARs. The reflector in these helps emulate a tungsten source, so they are scattered around the band risers and up-light all the set portal legs.

 

A splattering of 24 x PixelPAR LED PARs provide accents and eye candy around the band risers and on LX 4 and 5 directly above the band. The scenic MFM prop is also raised and lowered via HSL’s Kinesys system which sidles across the stage several times during the show and was fabricated by Production Park, co-ordinated by Ben Brookes. Squeezed into this are two Robe LEDWash 600s for the eyes, 2 Prolights Cobs on the wings and a Clay Paky Sharpy and ZR44 smoke machine which combine to do the heat ray effect.

 

Twelve MR16 ‘Birdies’ are built in to the two main stage trucks that are rolled on and off during the performance, controlled via wireless DMX, and Jeff Wayne’s special is a MAC Viper. The production is utilizing the Dominion's house follow spots. With over 4000 lighting cues in the two and a half hour show, most of it is timecode triggered.

 

Tim Oliver’s programmer is Chris Hirst. HSL supplied production rigger Callum Willoughby for the rehearsal period, Darran Curtis is the production LX and Ross Bristol is operating both lighting and the Kinesys system for the run. Ashley Simper is LX 2 who also runs the video content via a D3 media server, and LX 3 Phil Lewis also takes care of the pyro.

 

www.hslgroup.com

 

HSL supplies lights to ‘War of the Worlds’HSL supplies lights to ‘War of the Worlds’

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