We spoke to Andy Webb, Theatre Lighting Designer for TIGZ Creative, about the latest developments in theatre lighting design, and the growing influence of LED.
‘From Candle to Tungsten Light, LED the Future is Bright for Theatre’
1. How has theatre lighting advanced over the years?
From the early days of the original Patt 23 lanterns to the introduction of the industry standard Source 4. The past 5 years has seen a big change in theatre lighting certainly in the advancements of led technology. It’s a changed from when i first started when Tungsten generics were the main lanterns of my design with maybe the odd colour scroller fitted.
From there it went into noisy discharge moving lights which had come from the concert environment not ideal for theatre. Now 20 years on from my first designs, the majority of my rig is LED source units that have been especially developed for the theatre environment.
2. What’s instore for the future – where are we heading in theatre lighting and how will it add to the overall experience of live entertainment?
I guess theatre will become more and more LED based, with improvements in the quality of the products, hopefully as more people start to use LED the price of the products will come down as for me in theatre that is still a major problem with the very good quality LED products are still quite expensive.
This is an issue for the smaller venues who may wish to replace some of their generic stock, but do not have the funds. I think we will probably see brighter LED’s that can project over longer distances which will be great in theatre venues as a FOH fixture up in the gods and top balconies where they could replace those large Source4, 5 and 10 degree lanterns. In terms of what will that bring to our experiences it will allow us to be more creative as fixtures gain more features and functions, I think us as designers will only be limited by our imagination.
3. What advantages does LED have over other more conventional forms of theatre lighting?
The four main advantages of LED for me in theatre is No. 1 How quiet they are, with no hot lamps in the back, the fans can run less and be much smaller, resulting in a very quiet fixture. So this is ideal in smaller venues and where i have low rigging points on balconies above the heads of the audience, so they are far less distracting.
No 2. Power consumption with LED drawing less power i can now install them in venues with limited power, also can daisy chain more units together which means less power distros, and cabling. Then over a longer production run with the smaller power consumption I can save money on electricity bills.
Point 3, Endless colour options with the LED engines especially with the 4 and 7 chip modules, it’s far quicker to try colours out during the techs without having to re-gell the lanterns. Also i get much more vibrant colours, with none of the problems of the colours burning out like you do when using traditional colour filters.
Then the final point for me is the huge improvement in the dimming curve of LED fixtures, now being able to match the dimming curve of generics within my rig.
4. Can you give examples of successful theatre projects you’ve worked using LED integration?
Last Christmas I designed a fully LED design production of Aladdin at the Blackpool Grand theatre in the UK. Over the past couple of Christmas’s i have slowly been introducing more and more LED’s into my designs, having seen the advantages.
For me having all the rich saturated Colours that LED makes it ideal for Pantomimes to have all those greens and blues for the villains to the pinks for romantic elements. The bonus for me over a 5 week run and 52 shows the colour looks as good from show 1 to show 52 as no longer do the house team need to replace the gell filters every other show to keep the colours strong.
I also went for an LED front of house face cover for this production giving me that nice 27K - 42K skin tone, replacing what in the past would of been a mixture of Source 4 Profiles in lee009 and lee201. So for myself LED have become a very useful tool within my design enhancing the look and style of my productions and integrating well with my traditional generic rig if needed.
5. What are the challenges in integrating all the aspects in theatre design with regards to lighting, aesthetics, sound, ambience etc. How do you strike the right balance?
The main challenges in integrating all aspects of design, is probably the Time aspect and everyone wanted the same space at the same time. For me the key thing is to stay flexible with your design and be good at problem solving.
Bottom line the whole design and creative team are working to the same goal to make the production the best show it could possibly be. That is what i am always working to from day one when I am sat designing the plot in pre-production, to install and programming the show at the venue.
I think it is good to understand all the other elements of design as that makes your ideas come together better, from working with the sound designer to build in the soundscape to help with my lighting transitions, to working with the set designer to build lighting into the sets, and getting the sets painted in colours that will work with my design ideas. So I guess Flexibility is one of the key things to get the balance correct.
6. How critical is lighting in the overall design in theatres?
Well I would say the lighting is very critical in the overall design in theatres, as that for me is creating the style and feel of that production. The better mood I can create on stage, the more the actors feel it and then can deliver a better performance themselves, and becomes more believable to the audience.
With lighting we are taking the audience on a journey to the world that is being created on stage, whether that is a bright sunny day to a creepy giant’s cave. But as i said before it takes the whole creative team to work together to get the best results, so i would say every part of a design is critical not just the lighting.
7. Finally, how important is it for you to speak at the The Events Technology and Entertainment Development Forum?
I am looking forward to coming to speak at the forum, to give examples of what i have found out and developed within my designs using LED and hopefully show people that LED has moved along way on since it was first launched and can now be chosen as a genuine light source option in your theatre lighting designs.