 |
| Photo by Jens Hauer and Thommy Mardo |
Since its first performance at the Royal Court Theatre in London 40 years ago, more than 20 million people have seen Richard O’Brien’s bizarre story about a newly engaged couple, the mad transvestite Dr. Frank-N-Furter and his artificial creature, Rocky Horror.
For the German tour, lighting designer David Howe specified a rig mostly comprised of fixtures from Martin Professional, including MAC Viper Washes, MAC Viper Performances, MAC Auras, MAC 700 Profiles and Stagebars.
“The lighting designer is always the guy who has the wild ideas,” said Howe. “However, rather than creating an overwhelming light show, I wanted to draw the audience’s attention to the story, the characters, and the bizarre atmosphere in Dr. Frank-N-Furter’s house.”
No stranger to the production, this tour will be Howe’s sixth time working on the Rocky Horror Show.
“I used to specify the MAC 2000 Wash but this time I wanted to try out the MAC Viper Wash,” he said. “Its ability to blast colors out onto the stage is perfect for big venues and arenas.”
Howe refers to the MAC Viper as an upgrade over the MAC 2000 and speaks highly of the fixture’s benefits, especially for this particular production.
“The MAC Viper features beautiful, saturated colors and due to the high output, it really brings power to the lighting design- ideal to stage this crazy cocktail of classic rock ’n’ roll, eccentric people and broken conventions,” he said.
Howe replaced the MAC 401, which he used to illuminate the curtains on previous shows, with the MAC Aura.
“The MAC Aura’s LED technology makes it such a versatile fixture,” said Howe. “It’s great for lighting actors’ faces, which I could never have done with a traditional LED fixture. The MAC Aura’s tungsten adds a realistic quality that makes the light move in a fluent, natural way.”
However, technology and innovative features are not the only parameters Howe considers important. Since a successful show also needs reliable equipment and experienced partners, he recruited Showconcept, one of Germany’s leading full-service providers of technical equipment for touring, stage productions and TV-shows, to provide the lighting equipment, rigging and on-site assistance.
“My team of three doesn’t have time to concentrate on broken fixtures,” said Howe. “Showconcept’s team is completely professional. They make sure that the lights are always functional so that we can focus on the design.”
Andreas Rescheneder of Showconcept acted as technical director on the production.
“The equipment must usually endure eight shows per week plus rehearsals,” said Rescheneder. “If, for instance, I have 100 fixtures in the rig, I can’t risk half of them falling out and having to be repaired. I only invest in reliable and high-quality products, like Martin fixtures, which have been thoroughly tested by the manufacturer.”
The Rocky Horror Show is on tour in Germany until Aug. 2, 2015. For more information, please visit http://www.rocky-horror-show.de/
For more information, please visit: http://www.showconcept.com/default.html
For full story, please visit: http://martin.com/en-US/View-Case?pid=13699&id=217&itemId=CaseStory:14385
For more information, please visit: www.martin.com
As a world leader in the creation of dynamic lighting solutions for the entertainment, architectural, and commercial sectors, Martin lighting and video systems are renowned the world over. Martin also offers a range of advanced lighting controllers and media servers, as well as a complete line of smoke machines as a complement to intelligent lighting. Martin operates the industry’s most complete and capable distributor network with local partners in nearly 100 countries. Founded in 1987 and based in Aarhus, Denmark, Martin is the lighting division of global infotainment and audio company HARMAN International Industries. For more information please visit: www.martin.com.
HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets premier audio, visual, infotainment and enterprise automation solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets. With leading brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, Mark Levinson® and Revel®, the Company is admired by audiophiles, musicians and the entertainment venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of approximately 17,600 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $5.9 billion during the last 12 months ended December 31, 2014.
0 comments:
Post a Comment