The World of Wearable Art has been a landmark event in New Zealand for over 35 years. It’s a unique combination of the world’s leading wearable art competition, a circus and a fringe festival – an eclectic mix of performance and fashion shows. It is New Zealand’s largest theatrical production and over 60,000 people see it each year in Wellington’s TSB Arena.
Lighting designer Trudy Dalgleish had two directors on this show; Malia Johnson who was the show director and Brian Burke who was the creative director.
“They both had a great vision and brought that together to present an amazing show,” commented Trudy. “My brief was to fill the space with light as there were not many set pieces in the show as the set was projection on a large backdrop and also the floor.”
Trudy was required to light the room architecturally while still responding to the music cues and the need for each model to be lit so the garments were the hero moments.
The show was broken into six sections of about 15 minutes each. The first was Aotearoa which of course had a Maori theme, very mystical and powerful, then came Avant Grade which was a very theatrical dark piece. This was followed by Mono which was just a single performer and based around one colour per garment, and then Open which was very Euro pop with lots of bleed-through and big concert lights. Finally, there was Architecture which had lots of flying people and lighting of the whole room and Elizabethan which Trudy lit using CTO to get that old feel of sepia.
“I wanted a big arena concert feel for the show whilst still being able to have very theatrical intimate moments when it was needed,” explained Trudy. “Malia directs in a very theatrical way and there were lots of lovely and moving moments in the show that needed less flash and more theatricality. At other times, the show turned into basically a big rock stadium production. It was a lot of fun and I think the rig executed both looks very well.”
Trudy had two main challenges; first was that she had to use the equipment that was on offer from the rental company so the lights were not what she would have specified had she had a choice. The second was keeping lights off the floor projection whilst still being able to light people.
“Usually when I do shows of this size with floor projection I’m able to use movers with shutters on each side of the performance space, kind of like ballet shin busters,” added Trudy. “Because the audience was at the same level as the stage this wasn’t possible so I had to light people with Martin MAC Auras from the stage level. It didn’t give great coverage but it was just enough to scrape through. I would have to say this was my least favourite thing about the design! Next time I would double the number of Auras on the floor!”
The show didn’t have any scenery to speak of except for a very large curtain that came on and off and created a tunnel from upstage to downstage. This curtain was made of a new product called Kaynemail which was originally developed for Lord of The Rings as a lightweight version of chain mail that could be worn all day comfortably on set.
“It’s now used as architectural mesh and the wonderful thing about it is that it lights like an old fashion scrim, so if you light the front you can’t see through it, but if you light behind it become transparent,” said Trudy. “It was amazing and especially when you see the tight curves it had to get through its track on and off stage.
“There were lots of props and set pieces that lit up! The first was the five 4mt high Kaitaki which were movable tripods that lit up as they moved around the stage for the opening Aoteroa section. Also in this section were 40 triangular lights that the cast used in different configurations. This was successful and the only thing that lit this section. Several chandeliers flew in for the Avant Guard section of the show. During the Architecture section, we had a lot of people flying in and out, some of these people were on poles that lit up.”
The rig was supplied by MFJ Lighting and to their credit, Trudy says that they did not have one light fail in the whole of the preproduction or show period …. and that would have to be a first for her! The systems engineer was Blair McLaren who she says did a fabulous job and was such a pleasure to work with.
42 x Martin MAC Viper Profile (eye candy and lighting garment pods)
24 x MAC Viper Performance (to light inside of the Kaynemale and the stage)
36 x MAC Viper DX Wash (stage wash)
24 x Claypaky Sharpy (eye candy in the air and on the floor)
33 x MAC Aura (people lighting from the floor)
36 x ShowPRO LED Hex Bar (floor)
4 x ShowPRO LED Fusion Bar (floor)
56 x Birdies (floor)
2 x MDG hazers
6 x Smoke machines (under traps in stage)
1 x MA Lighting MA2 light and backup
4 x Truss mounted followspots
1 x Robert Juliat Merlin followspot
The show had projections from start to finish on the back screen and the floor. It was produced by a Belgium company called Drop the Spoon led by Patrick Neys. Trudy comments that it’s always a challenge to meld seamlessly with projection but its lots of fun as well.
The show was pre-vized in Sydney for a couple of days pre-departure for Wellington. It took two days to set the system up which Matt Quince did on Capture, the 3D plans that came out of NZ were fantastic for setting up the venue and the stage. Then Jason Fripp and Trudy did two days pre-plot which was to show the other creatives what the rig could do.
“As we were both busy we had a break of a few weeks, during which I went over to NZ to see a rehearsal, then we came back for another two days in which we plotted three of the segments,” remarked Trudy. “I went ahead and did some more pre-plot with my NZ programmer/desk operator Will Smith, and then Jason joined us again for the focus and plot in the venue. We time-coded the whole show and ended up with two cue lists: one for the show and one that would bring up the garments pods. We ended up with over 2500 cues in a show that was 90 minutes long! Lots of programming late at night.”
Trudy notes that the NZ crew were outstanding and fearless in what they were trying to do and what they achieved. Shout out to Sam Johnson the technical director and Alistair Cameron the producer for their astounding efforts!
