Combining old school whimsy with state of the art technology, Patch Theatre’s ZOOOM is an enchanting story of a child alone in her bedroom, unable to sleep and curious to understand.
She begins a transformational journey with light and discovers that the dark is a magical place.
Using original music, lasers and projections, the performance takes the audience on an immersive journey. The science of animation is unpacked from pixel to line to animation, as miniature worlds are blown up to be larger than life. ZOOOM begins at home or in the classroom, as you are invited to bring a piece of dark to the show. Arrive and your dark is exchanged for your own personal light – a little spark that will keep you safe and help guide you through the interactive sessions of the show.
At Patch Theatre they devise all of their work. Geoff Cobham is the Director, Designer and Lighting Designer so as you can imagine the process is design-led. ZOOOM started with the design team workshopping a whole lot of lighting and design provocations and then they added composers, performers, choreographers etc.
“We rehearse in a theatre and basically “play” with all the design elements,” remarked Geoff. “From this, we came up with a series of scenes that are attached to an abstract narrative about a girl in her room who is visited by a spark or ember of light. This ember becomes a line, which becomes an animation that then jumps into the audience.
“Our audience is creative thinkers, they are very in the moment and always open to wonder. We give them each a small light when entering the theatre, this guides them throughout the performance. This light has a receiver and is controlled via a transmitter linked to the lighting desk. It is the same technology as those crowd wrist bands used in rock concerts – it was purchased from a China-based supplier. Each light has three DMX channels for control of RGB. They also have three groups, most of the lights are on group A but we have separate control of some of the lights via these groups.”
During the show, the performer “throws” the light to the audience. Together the audience members blow their lights to change colours, spin them to make gobos spin on stage, wave them to make overhead lights sweep across the stage, have dance partying their seats and more. The audience feels like they are controlling the lighting of the show. This agency is very powerful and allows the children to be immersed in the show. Five-year-olds do not naturally sit still for 50 minutes and most have never seen a theatre show, so they do all they can to make their experience unique and memorable.
Patch Theatre is a small theatre company with limited resources. This show, all about light, only has seven lights, a laser and two projectors. Four of those lights are what they call 23Ls – retrofitted old Strand Pattern 23s with ShowPRO LED Photon 80s.
“By removing the bulb housing and reflector we were able to bolt a Photon 80 into the back of the 23,” explained Geoff. “By chance, the beam angle is perfect and is focussed at the gate of the lamp; we can shape the beam with the shutters and in effect have our own RGB LED23s!”
Also used are four Astera AX3s and four under-bed mounted TVs (which are mounted under a bed that gets tilted up), and their all-important hazer; an Antari HZ500.
Moving heads are three Showline SL300 LED Spot, a small LED mover with shutters from Vari-Lite.
Two old Panasonic 5K projectors are back-projected onto black scrim on fast folds. The image is not only captured by the scrim but also penetrated through the scrim into the room. The use of haze means the image is seen by the audience as beams of light, again connecting them with the show in a more visceral way. The image also spills onto the walls of the theatre adding to the feeling of immersion.
The laser is the finale of the show and is supplied by the very supportive Genius Lasers in Melbourne. The audience love sitting beneath a ceiling of RGB laser and often believe this effect is achieved using water!
To achieve a three-hour bump in, they only hang one light – the rest are supported on truss with truss rings on top. As they control where all the lights go, they have minimal adjustment to the plot, which includes hundreds of cues.
“We have one technician operator on tour, who operates from Prompt corner, as he has to perform in the UV section of the show in a full black velvet suit,” added Geoff. “This is usually Alex Hatchard who is a technical wizard and plotted the show with support from Chris Petridis our Technical Guru! We use QLab4 to control Sound, Vision, Laser via Pangolin and Vista via OSC (see attached system diagram) and yes, our main rack is called Janet Rackson. Our moving lights are also named Miles, Betty and Ester after triplets who helped us with the creation of the show.”
COVID willing, the show is in Parramatta Riverside Theatres Jan 20 to 22, Auckland Arts Festival March 26 to 27, and travels to Hobart, Brisbane, Sydney Opera House, Cessnock, Bunbury and Perth later this year. Patch Theatre currently have their installation show Sea of Light on at the Sydney Maritime Museum and their big promenade installation show The Lighthouse is in Perth Festival from Feb 15 to 20.
Creators
Geoff Cobham
Dave Brown
Roz Hervey
Temeka Lawlor
Angus Leighton
Composer
Jason Sweeney
Designer
Michelle ‘Maddog’ Delaney
Technical Designers
Chris Petridis
Alexander Hatchard
Animation
Luku
Cast
Miranda Daughtry
Taylor Dawson
Temeka Lawlor
Angus Leighton
Crew
Jacinta Way
Tom Bayford
Photos: Matt Byrne
