Nearly 30 years ago, in a scruffy fifth floor
apartment in Manhattan, composer Jonathan Larson began writing a rock musical that would define his generation.
Loosely based on Puccini’s La Bohème, it centred on a makeshift family of outsiders – fringe artists, drag queens, HIV-infected drug-users – navigating a world of poverty, gentrification and HIV-Aids in the seedy East Village of Lower Manhattan in the 1990s.
He called it RENT and, populating it with characters that reflected himself, his misfit friends and fellow artists, and their struggle against addiction, homelessness and disease, created a gritty, glorious and uplifting exploration of youthful optimism and love against the odds.
At its heart, RENT, which marks its 25th anniversary with this Sydney Opera House season, is a story of love, loss and pursuing life to the fullest.
Lighting Designer for this production of RENT is Trent Suidgeest and with Director Shaun Rennie and the rest of the Creative Team, conceiving of this production with some of the same ideology as the characters in the show. In that as independent theatre-makers and scrappy artists, they have been handed keys to the palace (Sydney Opera House) and they are squatting in the Drama Theatre putting this show on. Consequently, the theatre itself is heavily featured in the lighting design.
“We see the actors in the wings, truly, I know lots of us say we’ll do that, but this is very open and exposed,” said Trent. “I spent a lot of time detailing the space to make it look as if the work lights are left turned on!”
In Act One Trent wanted to convey a strong expression of life, joy and warmth; lots of theatricality, colour, movement and focussed lighting, which could be summed up perhaps as more “traditional musical theatre” lighting wrapped in a dressed-up theatre.
“That then allowed me to really push the show somewhere else for Act Two,” he added. “It becomes much colder both in colour temperature, but also in its directionality and focus. It is very broadly lit; open and static. There is tremendous loneliness in the way the second act is presented, which supports the characters’ journeys with isolation, illness, and ultimately death.
“In Act Two I wanted to push into a more European style. I’ve had time assisting Jan Versweyveld over the years, and I channelled him a little when moving through the total arc for the lighting in the show.”
Trent’s biggest challenge was time, as is traditionally the case for us lighting folk. For all the planning and detail one puts into a Cue Synopsis, the theatre is always a crunch time. There were some pros and cons to bumping in over the festive period, it did mean shorter bursts of working days interspersed with Christmas, but Trent did also feel a little short-changed in the total time they had to get the show up into the theatre.
The rig was essentially all supplied by Sydney Opera House, as the Concert Hall is closed for renovation they were able to take the full package of moving lights for use on this show. In total there were 52 moving lights and 50 ETC Lustres at play.
“It’s a nice full intelligent rig for the rock musical,” remarked Trent. “I tended to call them 52 “variable” lights on this one, as much of the lighting could be described as operatic, rather than rock concert style, but I think we put the rig to appropriate use for the storytelling.”
The rig was generously spread, but one element of note was there was the main trim with the rig, and then a further two high trim electrics with six Martin MAC Quantum Washes and four MAC Quantum Profiles which were used to shoot down through the main rig for lots of shafty shadow work and other theatre dressing. Trent admits that he loves a shadow of another fixture on a back wall.
There is just one video, designed by Dave Bergman, played at the end of the show, onto the back wall of the theatre. It is footage of intimate skin contact gestures of the cast. It is an expression of what we have missed this year in connection and touch.
The other “turn the projector on” moment is Trent, with a flickering low backlight creating a silhouette. When “the power blows” for the second time we are plunged into essentially total darkness except for a glorious moon prop, another deep collaboration between Trent and the set designer Dann Barber.
Ryan McDonald was onboard as Associate Lighting Designer / Programmer with Trent explaining that they worked together on Black Cockatoo at the start of this year and they have a good camaraderie. The show was programmed on the in-house suite of ETC consoles with 487 cues referencing 228 presets.
Trent sends a very special thanks to the in-house team of Matt Osborn (House Head Elec), Matt Quince (Supervisor), Mikey Rice (LX Swing), Ian Spence (Floor LX), Branden Dukes (Board Op), Ian Stevens (Supervisor), Ange and the bump in teams.
“I do genuinely want to thank them for really going above and beyond the traditional expectations with a buy-in venture,” he said. “It was a big rig to get in – spread everywhere – and a lot of wiring of set electrics that they all jumped into with no complaints. It felt like everyone was excited to be back doing what we all love and contributed beautifully to getting the show-up.”
One of Trent’s favourite lighting moments is a bit of a through-line with a ghost light, again a collaboration with the set designer Dann Barber. The show starts with one onstage and then in the opening sequence when “the power blows” the ghost light blows, designed to say “theatre is back!” and they smash into a big blue number for the title song.
“There are a few other gestures with the ghost light motif, and one of my favourite lighting moments is a solitary character lit only with a ghost light endowing it as a medical drip stand in the opening moments of the song Will I? Then we have individual globes fly in for all of the other actors, everyone lit only from their own globe with some intimate choreography. Each character in their own isolated trauma lit very closely. G95 globes are used all the time in theatre and events, but this feels very special and emotional.”
Although Trent was happy to be back doing what he loves, he admits this was actually a difficult show for him.
“Some people say “we’re not show fit”, but I’ve done a few shows back now,” he said. “I found myself under much more pressure on this one; to co-ordinate all of the set electrics in almost a Head Electrician capacity, while also being a support to the rehearsal room, and generating all of the paperwork to a level expected by the Opera House team. It was only a three week rehearsal period too, so I really felt like I could have done with one more week before we moved into the house.
This production was greenlit quite late in the scheme of things, of course, it’s because of this bizarre year, so the conception and design phase was truncated. There is usually more “mulling it over time” but it was go-go-go! While it was all a little traumatic, I’m very proud of my work. Opening Night was a real thrill …. and relief!”
RENT will transfer to Wyong following the Sydney season, so Trent is in the midst of reconceiving and drafting a smaller version of the show using the in-house equipment at Arthouse Wyong.
He is also in design / pre-production phase for Young Frankenstein at Hayes Theatre Co and Appropriate for Sydney Theatre Company.
Photos: Prudence Upton
http://www.trentsuidgeest.com/
