Established in Cairns in 1992, the JUTE Theatre represents the vision of three women, Kathryn Ash, Susan Prince and Suellen Maunder who recognised the need for a professional theatre company to service the Far North Queensland region of Australia. Now a significant regional theatre company driving the development, co-production, national and international touring of contemporary Australian plays from the regions JUTE passionately engages others in the telling of new stories that stimulate the mind, revitalise the spirit and lift the heart, providing a true sense of true belonging.
When an overhaul of the JUTE black box theatre became necessary, Arts Queensland as the venue managers put out their tender and after demos and quotes were submitted, and with the invaluable guidance of Keith Clarke they decided on the Philips Selecon SPX and called on the long-time, local Philips Selecon dealer to supply.
“There were a few raised eyebrows around the place when the order came in and we saw the required delivery date; to say it was going to be a little tight is something of an understatement but as ever, and with very little persuasion, our friends in Auckland came through and the fixtures were built and delivered in record time which is especially impressive considering the global demand for the SPX,” commented Graeme Hicks, owner of The Production Shop. “It’s a pleasure to distribute for a company that gives us this kind of support and even more of a pleasure to support the JUTE Theatre in this way.”
Included in the order was a large number of recently released Philips Selecon SPX ellipsoidal Zoomspots, 30x 15-35 and 20 x 25-50 Zoomspots, 16 each of the 19 and 36 Fixed Beam models making the JUTE Theatre the first venue in Australia to have them up and running alongside 30 x Rama HP Fresnels, 6 X Rama HP PCs and 4 x Aurora Cycs.
George Meijer juggled his day job as Technical Production Coordinator at QUT Creative Industries with designing for the world premier of ‘Blackbird’ and he is delighted with the end result. “I have to say that I was very impressed by the new Selecon stock. The fixtures are lightweight and easy to focus – and the quality of light output was just great… What I liked about the new SPX’s was the lack of light spill. We’ve really reached some fine specificity in fixture design nowadays, haven’t we – when we don’t have to worry about that? BUT – I really didn’t think that I was going to get that intensity from an 800W lamp – truly! Very Impressive.”
From extremely humble beginnings, JUTE Theatre has evolved into a major driving force in regional theatre, often recognised in national theatre publications and cited as a model for small-to-medium theatre companies and Philips Selecon is delighted to be helping them to light the way forward.
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