Taylor explains the brief for the lighting: "It concerned the size of the rig due to the fact that the show is doing weekly touring with only a one-day fit-up. This is where the MACs have proved useful, as it has allowed me infinite colours from their side lighting positions. I also knew we would have to light specific areas and so the shuttering facility proved very good. The show has several dance sections, which are pretty busy, cue-wise. Lots of colour and position changes take place in these. It's not rock and roll though, so each change is done with a degree of subtlety and the Macs performed well in this area."
Sparks provided a quantity of ten Mac 2000 Performance E fixtures, along with 12 High End Studio Color 575 CMYs. The conventional kit includes 35 various fixed beam ETC Source Fours, 24 Par cans, nine Strand Cantata Fresnels, seven Iris 4 floods, eight Alto Fresnels and a collection of Birdies. Dimming was from 96 ways of Avolites units.
Chris Clarke adds: "Together with the zoom and shutters, the colour mixing system meant that the Mac 2000 Performances could play infinite roles in the design, and quite importantly for time on the fit up meant we could hang four automated units to do the same job as 20 or so generics with scrollers."
Clarke concludes: "In my experience over the 10 years or so, Martin units have always been the most reliable. Meaning we spend more time being creative than waiting for repair work to be done which can be pretty frustrating as lighting plotting time is pretty limited anyway, and Sparks personal touch and fast response to any problems have been of great service on this tour and on other recent productions I have been part of."
(Lee Baldock)
