The future musical We Will Rock You is currently playing at Perth’s Crown Theatre with lighting design by Jerry Reinhardt.
“I was contracted to the WA company Platinum Entertainment as Lighting Designer and Technical Manager for the production of We Will Rock You,” said Jerry. “Considering the COVID restrictions we are all operating under I feel extremely fortunate and grateful for this opportunity. This production is unique in that it is one of the first commercial musical productions to be produced in Australia since the onset of the pandemic.”
What is also unique is that it has been achieved entirely with Western Australian cast, crew, creatives, and production companies except for the role of Killer Queen which is being played by Casey Donovan from Melbourne.
“It has been great to get back to my roots and put on my designer’s cap again,” commented Jerry. “You can’t beat the joy of collaboration and the creative process. WWRY has been a blast to work on because it enabled me to draw upon both my rock’n’roll experience and my theatrical background.”
Jerry added that the Crown Theatre is a great venue for this show; the theatre machine itself is world-class and the crew is highly skilled and great to work with.
“We had an interesting challenge mounting this production, in that we followed right on the heels of Channel 7’s Telethon,” he said. “Telethon was broadcast on a Saturday and Sunday night and we commenced our load in midday Monday. We needed to be ready for a full-dress rehearsal on Thursday. Knowing we were facing a tight schedule and limited plotting time, I designed the lighting rig bearing this in mind.
“I intentionally kept the rig simple and utilized a good portion of the in-house rig. Thank goodness for MA3D visualiser as it allowed me to get pretty close to my vision before going into the theatre. I must confess, however, that being an old guy my initial work was done on a drafting board, drawing my plans and sections with pencils and templates. Once I get it out of my head, through my hands and on to paper it is much easier to get it into the visualiser.”
The WWRY lighting rig consisted of the following:
- 18 x Martin MAC Viper Profiles
- 9 x High End SolaFrame 1500’s
- 20 x Ayrton Nandobeam S6’s
12 x MAC 101’s- 12 x Martin MH6’s
- 6 x Martin MH1’s
- 28 x ShowPRO GoldenEye 77’s
- 28 x ShowPRO Trussmates
- 24 x VNSP Par64
- 49 x ShowPRO Fusion Pars
- 28 x ETC Source Four 15/30 zooms
- MA Lighting grandMA2
Concert & Corporate Productions supplied the lighting rig, as well as the large 5m x 10m LED screen used upstage to project scenic elements, content, and live camera feeds. The video content was designed by Rory Henderson, video systems engineer and PTZ camera operator is CCP’s own video technician Josh Tilson.
“I would like to give a huge kudos and thank you to MA programmer Josh Walther who is also from CCP,” commented Jerry. “Josh’s programming skills and ability to understand my vision and translate this vision to the stage was immeasurable. The entire technical team has been amazing. Sound designer for this production is Jordan Gibbs and he has done a great job. Production Stage Management was a joy to work with; Stephanie Thackray is Production Stage Manager and Briana Dunn is Stage Manager calling the show. Both do a great job. All in all, it has been a great experience working on WWRY. The show opened on October 31st and will run through November 22nd. Many thanks to all the staff and crew at Crown Theatre and to all the cast and crew of WWRY.”
