The adventurous spirit of this Christmas classic is alive and well in the Continental Ballet Company's 2016 production of the show at the Bloomington Centre for the Arts' Schneider Theatre. Lending an added and very evocative dimension to the production is a vibrant lighting design by Joseph Bingham, using a collection of CHauvet Professional Rogue R2 Washes supplied by Monkey Wrench Productions.
For Bingham, using the Rogue fixtures in The Nutcracker marked the start of what promises to be a new "discovery adventure" of his own - at least as far as lighting is concerned. In addition to being a lighting designer, he is a technical consultant to the city of Bloomington, Minnesota. It was on his recommendation that the city purchased the Rogue R2 Wash fixtures for the Bloomington Centre for the Arts.
The Nutcracker is the first show at the centre's 366-seat, proscenium-style Schneider theatre to use the new Rogue R2 Washes. "These fixtures will make a very big and very positive difference to a variety of productions at the centre," said Bingham. "Our plan is to integrate the Rogue fixtures even more into this show and others in 2017."
In the case of The Nutcracker, the Rogue R2 Washes have helped Bingham convey a visual sense of the heroine's journey by creating varying patterns and colours of light on the theatre's 42' wide by 26' deep stage. He positioned the washes on a centre stage electric, as well as on electrics located 7' and 14' from the centre (five fixtures per electric).
"This show is all about the magical journey taken by its heroine," said Bingham. "I want to help the audience travel with her on that journey visually. By enabling me to add effects and quick color changes to an already robust design, the Rogues enhanced the transformative experience for the audience. From a practical standpoint, the zoom feature of the Rogues allowed me to eliminate specials from the plot or add specials where I hadn't been able to before because of instrument and circuit limitations."
Looking beyond The Nutcracker, Bingham offers this vision of the Rogues' role at the venue: "Multiple tenants of the Bloomington Centre for the Arts will be able to use the washes in their designs. The city event technicians also won't have to worry about colour changing gel for events or doing a lot of significant rehabbing now that they can create colour and focus palettes and pre-sets for the washes."
(Jim Evans)
