Recently, the Bendigo Theatre Company (BTC) hosted two productions, The Broadway musical Barnum during the period of September 28th to October 8th at the Girton Grammar Black Box and the production of Legally Blonde: The Musical during the period of October 19th to 22nd at the Ulumbarra Theatre Bendigo. Barnum tells the story of Phineas Taylor Barnum, an American remembered largely for being a 19th century circus owner while Legally Blonde follows sorority girl Elle Woods who enrolls in Harvard Law School to win back her ex-boyfriend. A huge part of the shows held for the two productions was the double story set, 35 cast members juggling, twirling and jumping through hoops, and a 25-piece band. To complete the sets, BTC contracted lighting designer Ian Scott to integrate a lighting rig to give the musicals a professional touch.
To give all the shows a colourful look, Ian Scott was looking for a compact, yet powerful wash light and LED Ellipsoidal to do the job. After conducting some research, Ian decided to acquire CHAUVET Professional lighting fixtures for the lighting rig supplied by Showtools International. Fixtures included 8x Rogue R2 LED Moving Head Washes and 6x Ovation E-910FCs LED Ellipsoidals.
8x Rogue R2 Wash were used for both shows as a main backlight colour wash and were kept up with the high amount of backlight from the led panels. The R2 Wash was implemented for its ability to provide saturated wash lighting to induce a whole manner of theatrical atmospheres. The saturated wash colours produced by this fixture allowed Ian Scott to create a strong atmosphere on stage, which works in counterpoint and in combination with the Ovation Fixtures. In addition, the smooth color mixing of the Rogues really helped wash the stage as well as the zoom of the R2’s which allowed Ian to control the coverage and to pump up the energy when the shows started. This combined with the bright, powerful light and the ability to offer five zones of LED control to pixel map its 19 (15 W) RGBW quad-LEDs as well as a standout zoom range of 12° to 49° allowed Ian to spread to cover even the largest areas of the stage.
The colour mixing of the 6x Ovation E-910FC’s were used with the lime being essential as it allowed Ian to create both saturated and unsaturated colours without compromising brightness. The Ovation E-910s were used as a side light for the Legally Blonde production and as a front/side light for the Barnum production. The 910FC’s were great for the shows because Ian could rely on them as an all-in-one color source, instead of hanging a lot of different systems of blue, orange, green, and so forth. When a scenes atmosphere needed a change and contrast was needed, Ian was able to change colour or intensity easily, without swapping to a different system, “The brightness and colours of the Ovation E-910FC’s were beyond expectation. “Skin tones rendered nicely with different shades of colour,” emphasized Ian. “When a variation was needed to brighten up a lighthearted moment in the musical for example, the fixture allowed me to seamlessly roll out the saturation on one of the Ovations, and not muddy the rest of the scene.”
With the use of the Rogue R2 Washes and the Ovation E-910FC’s, Ian Scott was able to create a memorable lighting experience over the course of the two productions. The musicals were a huge success, thrilling sold out audiences with the combination of the brilliant young talent on show and the durable and dependable CHAUVET Professional lighting fixtures that provided the perfect backdrop to the performances.
