Robe builds bridges in Madison County
- Details
Benno has worked for Opus One for 10 years, starting as an intern and becoming their principal lighting designer. The Bridges of Madison County initially completed two successful runs in Amsterdam Zonnehaus and DeLaMar Theatre before hitting the road with Benno staying onboard as the lighting designer.
The main challenge was adapting the lighting to ensure it was practical to tour, play one night stands and fit into a wide range of venues - although most Netherlands cities are well endowed with at least one good standard theatre / performance space as culture and the arts are extremely popular.
The romantic drama, popularized in Clint Eastwood’s 1995 directed movie, flips between night and day, dawn and dusk, so getting correct and naturalistic lighting was a key requirement. The objective was to let the audience ‘feel’ the heat of the sultry summer days and intense emotional states on the actors faces.
Benno also didn’t have much time to change and renew the design between the last run finishing and the tour starting, and the updates were strategic and practical.
The moving lights that had been rigged above the audience on the long runs were moved back to the stage. The 16 Robe fixtures - eight of each - in the touring show are positioned on the house overhead LX bars and are absolutely crucial for the scene setting work.
Benno worked closely with set designer Eric Goosens. The set was generally neutral in colour and the props were mostly grey so they took lighting well and could be transformed with colouring and texturing all of which was vital in establishing the locations as well as the time of day.
Other lights on the touring rig include some LED battens, active Sunstrips, LED PARS and regular PAR CP62s and they tap into the theatre’s house profiles and fresnels for front light, all controlled via their touring grandMA2.
(Jim Evans)
