UK - Forty years ago this October, the new National Theatre building opened on London's South Bank. It housed three theatres, production workshops, rehearsal rooms and all the state-of-the art technology you'd expect in a new world-class venue. It was also home to a new kind of lighting control capable of dealing with the National's 800 plus dimmers, moving lights, colour changers, projectors and more. Specified by theatre consultant Richard Pilbrow and partner Dick Brett, Lightboard offered a wealth of powerful tools for mixing and balancing lighting, creating cues with complex timing and overlapping fades. At best it was considered only borderline possible with the technology of the day - but with a mix of clever planning and cunning engineering by Rank Strand's development team, the project was realised.
The recent recovery of an original Lightboard by the Backstage Heritage Collection, and the development team's 2016 Gottelier Award Nomination, prompted this year's PLASA Show to host "Inventing The Future: The Story of the National Theatre's Lightboard," presented by Rob Halliday, lighting designer, programmer, author of LSi's Classic Gear column and founder member of the Backstage Heritage Collection. Taking place in the PLASA Lighting Theatre at 2:00pm on the 19th September it's your opportunity to spend a riveting hour and a half with Rob as he tells the story of the birth, life, death and subsequent renovation of this seminal piece of lighting history.
To get your ticket for the PLASA Show, click here!
(LSi Online)
