Each year, the most talented dancers, singers, musicians and actors from Queensland state schools come together to stage one of the state’s largest performing arts events. More than 1500 students from across Queensland showcase their talent by starring in the professionally produced show alongside some of Queensland’s leading professional artists.
Creative Generation – State Schools Onstage aims to mentor and foster the next generation of performers and provides opportunities for them to work with and learn from professional artists. This annual entertainment event has launched the professional careers of many students who have gone on to star in theatre, television and musical productions.
2012 marked the eighth year of Creative Generation – State Schools Onstage with four arena-style shows staged at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, South Bank.
The show is televised by Channel 10 in Queensland and so lighting designer Trudy Dalgleish had to ensure that the expansive area had plenty of lighting for all of the camera shots.
“I have to design a fairly generic rig because I never know until about three weeks to go what will be available,” she commented. “I take into consideration the television cameras a lot because it’s such a large area with a lot of camera shots at different angles. I have to have a light everywhere – on the floor, in the roof, up the back – because every shot they take I have to have something in the background. This year I used a lot of LED battens including Pulsar Chromabanks, to border the entire dance area and they were fantastic. Usually I would use Martin StageBars but unfortunately there weren’t any available.”
Moving lights included seventeen Martin MAC2000 Profiles and twelve MAC2000 Performances with shutters.
“The absolute workhorses of the rig were the thirty-six Martin MAC2000 XB wash fixtures which are my favourite lamp,” Trudy said. “They are a fantastic light and I use them on every single show as I love them to bits! I couldn’t get as many as I wanted and had to use another brand’s wash light which I absolutely hated and will never use again!”
The main scenic element was twenty-one Martin LC Panels as well as 120 Pro Shop LED Tubes lighting up the stairs from within. The LC Panels were arranged in six strips of three panels.
“I’m really getting into media at the moment as that seems to be the way of the future,” commented Trudy who used a Martin Maxedia Media Server on this production. “I’m slowly building up my own media library and for this show we designed a couple of media clips. The one thing I really like about the Maxedia is that you can see every clip that you’ve got on the show on its’ monitor.”
For control Trudy used a MA Lighting grandMA console whilst six Robert Juliet 2.5K Aramis follow spots and four Unique Hazers were also deployed.
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