For the first time in almost forty years, Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show has been performed in Tasmania!
This brand new professional production, produced by John X Presents, had a record-breaking run of 31 performances at Hobart’s Theatre Royal including a midnight Halloween performance. Slated as the first locally produced, professional commercial musical to be staged in Tasmania the show was originally to be staged in November 2020 and postponed due to Covid-19.
Gareth Keys of GK Productions, who was the supplier, designer and operator for the show, says he didn’t really have a strict brief on this show having worked with the director and company on numerous productions over the last few years.
“One discussion we did have was that the set and costume designer had chosen to stay away from using red to give the show a different feel from what is seen as traditionally Rocky Horror,” he said. “With lighting, I also mostly stayed away from using red, the main exception during Frank-N-Furter’s entry Sweet Transvestite.
Gareth wanted to achieve a rock ’n’ roll feel for the show and create something with punchy beam looks, particularly with the high trim height of the rig, so he avoided using too many gobos throughout most of the show and generally only used them for special effects.
The biggest challenge for Gareth on this production was fixture locations as most of the large production numbers occurred downstage of a large and high ‘Hall Wall’ set piece, not only did this mean most lamps were a long way downstage but for sight-lines, everything was a long way up in the air.
With the historic venue lacking wing space as well as leg returns required for masking his opportunities for booms and sidelight were quite restricted.
“I managed to get a small cluster of ShowPRO Fusion Pars situated on a panorama bar 1/3 of the way upstage,” explained Gareth. “I also located on the floor at the extremities of the proscenium two Vari-Lite Showline SL350 Wash fixtures which gave me some side light downstage.
“I used eight Strand Selecon PL Fresnel1 MKII fixtures in the theatre’s Royal Boxes to provide a significant amount of my wash and colour downstage and I used four more to light the lab. The colour mixing was particularly useful being able to highlight different elements in the pink and blue colour pallet which had been chosen for the set.”
Gareth had six VL2600 Profiles in the rig mostly for specific task lighting and specials. Two were located in cradles suspended from the Dress Circle and another four were located on LX1. According to Gareth, the units have incredible optics and with the framing shutters, he was able to utilise them for a multitude of tasks.
Two trusses, located downstage in front of the ‘Hall Wall’, housed many fixtures including 12 Vari-Lite Showline SL 300 LEDSPOT, eight SL 300 BEAMFX, eight VL800 EventWash, SL Nitro 510 Strobes, PL Fresnel 1 and ShowPRO Quad 7s for truss warmers.
Upstage of the wall, there was a third truss which was flown a little lower with four more SL 300 LEDSPOT plus some SL350 WASH fixtures and Fusion Pars. Further upstage, Gareth utilised some fly battens with more SL350 Wash and Fusion Pars.
Smoke and haze was a challenge on the show, particularly with the recently upgraded heating system. Fog was used under a grill in the lab to reveal ‘Rocky’ and cold smoke was used in the fridge to reveal ‘Eddie’. At the end of the show the castle takes the form of a rocket and flies out into orbit and this was achieved with lots of smoke and a pair of Spark Fabrica Spark Machines attached to the flat. Another two fog generators downstage provide fill for some of the larger production numbers whilst two hazers upstage do most of the work however the third hazer downstage helped when the airflow wasn’t in their favour.
“I used some Vari-Lite Showline SL220 Punchlite as footlights which are a little on the large side but provided plenty of punch and colour,” added Gareth. “I used some ShowPRO Fusion Wash fixtures upstage to light the Castle/Rocket and some upstage masking flats. The top and bottom Cyclorama lighting is achieved with Vari-Lite Showline E-Strip 10.”
There were a lot of set electrics in this show with LED RGB strip in the steps, around windows of the rocket/castle and the buttons and screens in the lab control panels. RGB led strip was also installed in the visor area of the car controlled via W-DMX to light within the car. There was also white LED strip inside a gorgeous moon set-piece and pink LED neon framed the Hall Wall set piece. On top of that, there were bunker lights mounted on the set and behind an entrance door plus LED fluorescent lights in the fridge.
I was in the role of supplier, designer and operator, the rig included.
Control:
Avolites Quartz
Avolites Titan Mobile Wing
4x LSC Nexus Ethernet Converter
Moving Lights
6x Vari-Lite VL2600 PROFILE
16x Vari-Lite Showline SL 300 LEDSPOT
8x Vari-Lite VL800 EVENTWASH
8x Vari-Lite Showline SL300 BEAMFX
12x Vari-Lite Showline SL350 Wash
Static LED
12x Strand Selecon PL Fresnel1 MKII
4x Vari-Lite Showline SL220 Punchlite
16x Vari-Lite Showline E-Strip 10
2x Vari-Lite Showline Nitro510
15x ShowPro Fusion Par QXII
6x ShowPro Quad 7
2x ShowPro Fusion Wash
Atmospherics and Effects
3x Smoke Factory Tour Hazer II
1x Martin Jem ZR-33
1x Martin Jem ZR-44
1x Martin Jem ZR-45
1x Martin Jem Magnum 850
1x Highend Lightwave Research F100
2x Spark Fabrica Downward Flow Spark Machines
Truss
9x 300mm Alloy Box Truss
Conventional (Supplied from Theatre Royal stock)
20x Selecon Pacific Profile
12x Strand SL Profile
6x Selecon 1.2k Fresnel
2x CCT Minuette
2x CCT Silhouette
