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Robe T2 Profiles specified for ‘Zodiac The Musical’

‘Zodiac The Musical’ is a new musical produced by Peet Nieuwenhuijsen, directed by William Spaaij and staged at the Koepelgevangenis, a former prison in Breda, The Netherlands. Lighting designer Marc Heinz was among a team working under the technical production umbrella of Unlimited Productions - also based in Breda - helping to deliver this new work.

He and technical production manager Michiel van der Zijde - representing Unlimited Productions together with Jeffrey Kranen and Luc Huisman - also designed the set, and Heinz specified 32 of Robe’s new T2 Profile fixtures for the project, together with 50 x Robe Spiider LED wash beams and assorted other lighting fixtures.

Thirty-eight LED screens are dotted around the upper levels, with over 70 drones - provided by Dronisos from France - joining the cast. With original plans unavailable and no records existing in the municipality, a full 3D laser scan survey of the building was completed - needed for the UV-mapping of the projections - and followed by a rope access examination of the roof construction conducted by the Unlimited Productions team to ascertain the roof weight loading capacities which were judged to be “extremely little”.

They received the go-ahead to remove around 1000 kg of old house lighting and associated steel detritus from the roof which freed up just enough capacity to rig a very small top centre circular truss at the top - which is rigged with the 12 x Robe Spiiders. These are bright enough to reach the stage 30 metres below for a general layer of wash lighting, and light enough to be safe. The only other flown element is an “eye” set piece which flies in and out. It was also necessary to remove the old house lighting to get a clear path for the 7 x 20K projectors rigged in seven prison cells on level four, spaced out around the 52.5-metre roof circumference. Everything else had to be ground or side supported.

Michiel van der Zijde, Marc Heinz and Ruud de Deugd (head rigger and production structural engineer) produced the 8 x curved leg spider-like ground support structure design which connects to a 15-metre diameter circular truss in the middle positioned 12 metres above the central performance. This provides close lighting positions for the main performance space which is 14 metres in diameter complete with a double revolve stage.

Being a prison, Koepelgevangenis has only one small entrance/exit and that’s not even enough to reverse an artic, so all the production kit had to be unloaded outside and hand-carried inside. Once the rigging and set were solid, Marc Heinz and his assistant designer Jordy Veenstra began properly assessing the lighting needs having joined the project towards the end of 2020.

Twenty Robe T2s are fixed to the steel beams around the main interior wall, each individually attached to the building by rope access riggers. A rope sits next to each light so it can be lowered for service. The other 12 x T2 Profiles are on the top circle of the spider ground support, positioned for closer front lighting.

Twenty-two Robe Spiiders are on the spider (ground support) structure. These and the T2s also on there are accessed via a person lift as it is fully loaded with lights, so no climbing is possible. Access for getting the lift in position was also a consideration when positioning the seating and staging. Sixteen Spiiders are attached to the balcony around the third level of cells, used for washing the venue’s dome and supporting the projections, with the final 12 on the top circular truss right up on the roof.

All 92 moving lights - including all the T2 Profiles and Spiiders - are working in conjunction with a Follow Me automated followspot system which is at the heart of the design. All the show’s lighting is being supplied by Events Light, who were among the first in Europe to receive the T2 Profile.

Lighting control is via a Road Hog Full Boar console programmed by Jasper Nijholt. Projectors and media servers were programmed by Ruben Boogaard, and since the show premiered on 5th July, both lights and video are being operated by Pascal Schutijser. It is a mix of timecode for the large production numbers, but mostly manually operated lighting cues according to visual line-of-sight. Audio is designed by Jeroen ten Brinke. The video design is by Arjen Klerkx and content created by Anouk Steenbakkers and Joost Gulien.

(Photos: Paul Clarke/Louise Stickland)

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