Australian pop sensation Kylie Minogue brings her Kiss Me Once tour to Australia this week. Lighting Designer is Rob Sinclair and Lighting Director Louisa Smurthwaite.
Very early in the process, even before the new music was available, Sinclair had a meeting with Creative Director William Baker and Set Designer Alan Macdonald, during which it was decided that ‘precise geometry’ and ‘Bauhaus aesthetics’ were to be the key themes for the set design, inspired by the lines of the set and the early costume ideas. Baker then created a very detailed and instructive style guideline for each section of the show. For Sinclair, this was extremely useful to begin the process of designing the lights.
About a month before rehearsals, the music arrived and Sinclair began working on the lighting design. Speaking about his methodology, Sinclair says, “I have my own, strange system of making notes on lyrics and marking structure and cue points.”
Sinclair sent his notes and instructions to Smurthwaite who patched it up and set up the consoles. By now it was time for band rehearsals and Sinclair and Smurthwaite spent two weeks in a small, badly ventilated room to pre-visualize the preliminary design in action and to make adjustments where necessary. Next came ten days of strenuous production rehearsals, during which the duo learned that nothing from the pre-visualization worked. Consequently, the design had to be changed an additional two or three times to ensure all the details were correct as well as incorporate feedback from Baker and Kylie.
“Nothing from pre-visualization ever works,” Sinclair explained. “It’s useful to have a start but the transfer from screen to reality is always jarring. Baker and Kylie had some great notes about colour and pace and we produced pages of our own. We both have a great eye for detail and had long discussions about the timings of single cues.”
Sinclair and Smurthwaite’s final design included 12 MAC Auras and 120 MAC Viper AirFXs, which made up the majority of the rig. According to Sinclair, the lighting design was precise and meticulously detailed.
“We chose the MAC Viper AirFX particularly for their brightness,” said Sinclair. “We needed a hard-edged fixture that would be visible against a video wall and needed to be seen in the air more than on stage. I did a shoot-out in Vegas and the AirFX was the clear winner.”
Working with this large amount of fixtures was a great challenge for this creative duo as it pushed them to develop designs that were more than just ‘here come the spots or the washes’.
“Having the purity of one type of light source really captured our imaginations,” commented Smurthwaite. “It allowed us to create a clever and classy lighting design – it wasn’t obvious and I really like that.”
Talking about the lighting design for a particular song, ‘Kiss Me Once,’ Smurthwaite said they were trying to create an intimate experience for the audience by going from warm, soft looks to bold lasers to a petal drop.
“The lights, the effects and the laser paired flawlessly with both the music and Kylie’s stage presence, and the audience got sucked in,” she said.”
When asked about his favorite show moment, Sinclair says, “The best cue of my career is the point where Kylie jumps, the lights go out and the lasers come on at the start of ‘On a night like this’. It’s so simple, yet so powerful.”
Smurthwaite said her favorite bit was the Bauhaus section, “Musically, I really enjoy the composition. The costumes took a life of their own, the dancers looked incredible and it’s where Kylie appeared so close to the audience on the B stage after an onslaught of laser mapping, video content, lighting and dancers. It’s a special moment.”
Photos: Ralph Larmann
