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Robe LED products chosen for “Cinderella” panto in Blackpool

Robe LED products chosen for “Cinderella” panto in Blackpool
Robe LED products chosen for “Cinderella” panto in Blackpool

LD Andy Webb has designed the lighting scheme for the “Cinderella” pantomime at Blackpool UK’s Grand Theatre utilising entirely Robe LED products. It was the third year that Webb has been asked to light this panto for UK Productions.

 

For the last three years, Webb had integrated more and more LED fixtures into his panto rigs and this time was able to reach the goal of lighting the entire show utilising LED sources, apart from twelve Source Four generics. Two types of Robe fixtures were at the core of the design: the DL4S Profile and the Spiider LED wash beam, of which there were ten each.

 

Due to the tight stage and wing space at the Grand Theatre, an original Matcham designed venue opened in 1894 and now Grade II Listed, the set - developed by the UK Productions’ creative team - incorporated numerous flown cloths as well as four full stage scenic sets, flown practicals like chandeliers, two star cloths, over 3000 white dimmable Xmas lights and two white Shetland ponies pulling Cinderella’s crystal carriage. The Spiiders and DL4Ss were distributed on LX bars 1 and 2, with a pair of DL4S Profiles also at FOH.

 

The DL4S Profile’s primary tasks were to texture the stage and scenery. The FOH DL4Ss were used for specials and other pick-ups. During the overture, they were used to pin-point areas of text from the first paragraph of a Cinderella storybook appearing on the front curtain, and they followed the text as it was read out by the narrator. In the first minute of the show there were 39 lighting cues, Andy Webb recalls.

 

This stormed straight into the production number ‘Somebody to Love’, which had 68 LX cues including the DL4S’s spotting from the front positions and silhouetting from behind through a gauze which was also in for the first part of the song.

 

The Spiiders were the main wash lights and replaced dozens of 1K fresnels on a ‘traditional’ rig which would usually be on LX 1 and 2 and dotted around the FOH galleries. Webb could texture the whole downstage area with the DL4Ss and then kick in with the Spiiders for ethereal effects when the fairy appeared.

 

The rest of the rig included Robe’s Parfect 100s and Parfect 150s which were used for side booms and from FOH as well as for texturing the pros arch. Two Viva CMY LED profiles on the pros arch truss produced some beams and were also used for pick-ups onstage, swinging out into the audience for the many interactive moments, and they were also used for the magic scenes and as distractions during the scene transformations.

 

Spikies were positioned downstage left and right on the stage apron for classic up-lighting effects as well as shooting out into the audience and also blending in with the Spiiders when in flower mode. Four CycFX 8s were along the stage lip and flipped back and forth to illuminate the stage cloth. They also beamed into the crowds to boost the energy for the musical numbers and were used for general eye-candy duties.

 

A pair of LEDBeam 300s were rigged on the pros arch bars, providing side key lights for when the apron was in use, and next to them were a pair of Parfect S1 60K and 27Ks giving warm and cool white side key lighting options. They were replacing what would have been profiles in a conventional panto set up.

 

Andy Webb was assisted on the programming by freelance production LX Shaun Ellis. Over 300 lighting cues were developed and programmed during a 30 hour period. The Robe kit was supplied to the production by CEG Hire & Productions from Cambridge and Robe UK, with the Grand’s house LX crew running lights day-to-day for the 52 performances utilising an Avolites Tiger Touch II console.

 

(Photos: Jihane Saadi/UK Productions)

 

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Robe LED products chosen for “Cinderella” panto in BlackpoolRobe LED products chosen for “Cinderella” panto in Blackpool

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