Istrian National Theatre invests in Robe
- Details
It has a 720-seat main auditorium and they produce around 10 new works per year, mainly drama or modern dance, plus one children’s production. The original building dates back to 1871 when the theatre opened. It was reconstructed in 1918 and extensive further restoration and upgrade work was undertaken in 1989 including the installation of a new fly tower, which made it capable of staging far more ambitious productions.
Recently, the theatre has invested in Robe moving lights – following a growing trend for theatres not just to look for more flexible and adaptable options, but also to look at LED and other long-term energy saving options that involve greater cost efficiency.
Dario Družeta is the venue’s technical director for Lighting. He is also a lighting designer and responsible for lighting most of the shows there. He explained that over the last three years they have purchased a number of different Robe fixtures - LEDWash 600s, Actor 6’s (a static version of the LEDWash 600) MMX Spots, DL4S Profiles and ParFect 100s… all of which have been delivered by Robe’s Croatian distributor, LAV Studio.
The theatre is part state part city funded, and it also has to make a working profit, so budgets are tight and they have to make their cap ex investments judiciously each year.
The Istrian National theatre describes itself as a multifunctional space and sometimes stages concerts and other events, and so the Robes are handy for lighting these, and visiting LDs are always impressed when they arrive and see the range of lights available. They have an ETC Ion console for control.
(Jim Evans)
