Conor McPherson's The Weir - General scene in the bar from down stage left corner.

Conor McPherson's The Weir - General scene in the bar from down stage centre as Finbar starts to tell his story.

"Conor McPherson's The Weir is one of those shows that can catch you out. At first glance there's little scope for a lighting designer to show his or her mettle. After all, it's one room, at night on a winter's evening; not much is going to change. Simple illumination would be all too easy. But creating atmosphere, something both interesting yet unobtrusive, is altogether more difficult. Part of the secret is tight focusing and precise lighting angles. But just as important is the choice of colour I wanted something that would be both inviting and dingy, a bit like an old and well loved sweater.

Flicking through Rosco's E-Colour+ swatchbook I knew at once that Surprise Peach (017) would provide exactly what I wanted. On top of that I chose E-Colour+ Half CT Orange (205) for the key lights to cut through the Surprise Peach at specific points of focus on the set, the bar and tables and chairs. That dealt with the bulk of the show. As each character told his story the general state slowly dipped to concentrate on him leaving just the Surprise Peach for the rest of the set. It's an old trick but only works well if there's enough time for the fades to happen discreetly.

The same applies to Valerie's story. But the difference here is that it is altogether more chilling than the men's. It seemed appropriate to shift the colour towards that end of the spectrum. What was clear was that something blue would not be appropriate. What I wanted was dinge with an edge, murky dawn. As far as I know nothing suitable exists. It seems to be something of a holy grail for colour. I've tried various combinations in the swatch book before I eventually settled on E-Colour+ Fluorescent 4300K (242) and Minus Green (247) together. It's a recipe that's served well in the past and one that would be appropriate on this occasion. The final element was to highlight Valerie. For this I chose E-Colour+ 247. On its own it helped considerably with the skin tone under the altogether more ghostly light of the 242/247 combination. (The pictures were taken at the first dress after which the spill from the 247 on the bar was shuttered out)."

BIOGRAPHY:

Being a photographer by profession and a fan of the theatre, stage lighting is a natural enthusiasm. I am painting with light, the literal translation of the etymological roots of the word photography. I began at The Lace Market Theatre in Nottingham under the tutelage of John K. Leventhal. A move to the Birmingham Post & Mail in 1989 took me to The Crescent Theatre where I have lit many shows in both the old and new theatres. A few in particular stick in the memory: Faustus, Ghosts and Time of My Life in the old theatre and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Macbeth and The Rise and Fall of Little Voice in the new. The Weir is another one with which I was particularly pleased.

ACT 1
Photo Credit: Classical Opera Company and Foto Spot, Italy.


ACT 2
Photo Credit: Classical Opera Company and Foto Spot, Italy.


ACT 3
Photo Credit: Classical Opera Company and Foto Spot, Italy.


ACT 4
Photo Credit: Classical Opera Company and Foto Spot, Italy.

"On my recent production of The Marriage of Figaro the set designer had asked for the whole show to be lit in hues of green, this was to enhance the green set and green floor. I wanted to use colours that would enhance and provoke the set and costumes but not deter from the true time and location of each act. With the new colours in the Rosco E-colour+ range, I felt confident that ‘just the right’ greens might be available. We softly lit Act 1 as an attic bedroom using the 5433 Surf Blue to give the feeling of an early morning dawn wash. Later in Act 2 it was used at full to give the feeling of a bedroom filled with morning sunlight. 5436 Capri Blue gave an interior feel of early evening, a slightly smoky, end of a party, wash to Act 3. Then finally, a midnight lit garden; 5077 Green Blue triumphed as the night wash, really giving a sense of darkness as well as enhancing the green of the bushes and shrubbery backdrop. It was great lighting a show just in green and made me really examine my swatch book. And just in case you were wondering, I also used 373-371, so the singers didn’t look like the Jolly Green Giant!."

BIOGRAPHY:

Johanna has been designing the lighting for shows nationally and internationally for over 20 years. These most recently include "My Names Rachel Corrie" directed by Alan Rickman, "Under the Whaleback" directed by Richard Wilson, and "Macbeth" directed by Max Stafford-Clark. Johanna is currently Head of Lighting for the Royal Court Theatre for whom she has designed over 50 productions.

Act I: The Count and the Chorus


Act I: Rosina and Don Bartolo


Act I: Finale


Act II: Finale

The Barber of Seville
"The set was a “magical box” made up of many doors, windows and walls which slid in or out or popped up and down defining the various acting areas and reducing the space. It was painted a deep Klein Blue. All the backings behind the open spaces were white and acted as “bounce” surfaces off which to reflect light. In order to counter-balance the used space I decided to over-light and exaggerate the lighting on the dead areas . I did this by selecting colors that would give me a dayglo or fluorescent effect. The opera was staged in a commedia dell’ arte style with doors flying open and characters jumping out of windows, etc. It was very entertaining and I thought that using bursts of very saturated, almost fluorescent color emphasized the comedy."

Act I: The Count and the Chorus
E-Colour + 101, Yellow, is reflected off the backing flats behind the doors and flowing onstage through the open door Count Almaviva, the tenor, on the step unit is highlighted with Broadway Pink, Supergel 339. The singers are lit with a combination of moving lights and Broadway Pink in conventional fixtures which can also be seen behind the upstage left wall.

Act I: Rosina and Don Bartolo
The backings reflect Supergel 339, Broadway Pink which also bounces off the blue walls and white set pieces. The lighting had to blend the saturated, dichroic colours of the moving lights with traditional filters and using these “fluorescent” colours helped mix the two types of colour media.

Act I: Finale
The backing s are lit with E-Colour+ 121, Leaf Green.

Act II: Finale
The backings are lit with a mixture of E -Colour+ 100 Spring Yellow and 105, Orange while blue light is bounced off the walls.

Director: Italo Nunziata
Set and Costume Designer: Pasquale Grossi
Lighting Designer: Patrick Latronica
Produced by the Teatro Comunale di Trevisio, Italy and the Teatro Colseudoporto, Portugal

BIOGRAPHY:

During the many years in which Patrick Latronica has lived and worked in Italy he has designed the lighting for major productions of the Teatro Massimo, Palermo, Teatro, Bellini, Naples, La Fenice, Venice, Teatro dell’ Opera, Roma and Teatro San Carlo, Naples and countless others both in Italy and abroad. His work has been seen in thirty countries. Two productions have been awarded prestigious prizes - I Due Gemelli won the Critics Award, Premio Abbiate, for the best production of 1997 and The Promessi Sposi was cited as Best Musical of 2001/2002. In 1990 Patrick latronica was awarded the Premio Positano for his significant contribution to Italian Dance.

"I used Roscolux 2005 Storaro Cyan and 4230 CC 30 Blue for the first time in a recent Madama Buttterfly in Calabria. I used the Cyan Turquoise behind a black scrim as a background to silhoutte the small, waiting figures on stage with the addition of a few “streak” gobos. The effect ellicited such strong emotions that it gave me goose-bumps and I swear I heard sobs in the audience - it was as if we were all waiting. The Blue made a "dull" white light so thick that you cut it with a knife- it really made her a heroine..."

During the many years in which Patrick Latronica has lived and worked in Italy he has designed the lighting for major productions of the Teatro Massimo, Palermo, Teatro, Bellini, Naples, La Fenice, Venice, Teatro dell’ Opera, Roma and Teatro San Carlo, Naples and countless others both in Italy and abroad. His work has been seen in thirty countries. Two productions have been awarded prestigious prizes - I Due Gemelli won the Critics Award, Premio Abbiate, for the best production of 1997 and The Promessi Sposi was cited as Best Musical of 2001/2002. In 1990 Patrick latronica was awarded the Premio Positano for his significant contribution to Italian Dance.

"What nature does for real Rosco can achieve on stage."

Max Keller's career started as a lighting operator at the city theatre in his home town Basel/Switzerland.

From 1975 on, as head of the lighting department of the Staatiche Schauspielbühnen Berlin (State Drama Theatres) in Berlin he introduced the profession of "Lighting Designer" in Germany.

The Münchner Kammerspiele (Munich Chamber Theatre) were the first to employ him as a lighting designer. Since then he puts, not only there but in many theatres around the world, the scene in its best light. He teaches at theatre universities, academies and colleges and has published numerous articles in related magazines.

His work not only unfolds in theatres but as well in lighting installations for architectural purpose and lighting concepts for the industry.

Photo 1
Photo Credit: Robert Day

Photo 2
Photo Credit: Robert Day

Photo 3
Photo Credit: Robert Day

"Knock Against My Heart was a new play inspired by The Tempest and created in collaboration with Brazil’s acclaimed theatre company Nós do Morro."

PHOTO 1 - Set in the environment of the Brazilian dry lands, it was important to create the feeling of dry heat. #302 (Pale Bastard Amber) was ideal in capturing this atmosphere without overly saturating the actor’s skin tones.

PHOTO 2 - Night scenes evoking Miranda’s dreamy environment were created with hues of blues, #383 (Sapphire Blue) and #183 (Moonlight Blue) supporting #302 to keep the dry heat of the night. The hill sculpture was lit from within with LEDs covered in gels #12 (Straw) and #371 (Theatre Booster 1) to detail the favelas.

PHOTO 3 - An opening preset used dramatic saturated colours to represent the elements of water, earth, air and fire. Lighting the haze in the air were #321 (Soft Golden Amber) and #318 (Mayan Sun) forming beams of light to add texture to the space.

BIOGRAPHY:

Prema Mehta designs for drama, dance and opera productions around the UK and Europe.

Photos were shot on a Canon Eos 1Ds at 1/4 second at f2.8 and 400 ISO.

"The Bus" by Lukas Barfuss is a new piece of writing. There’s no denying its modernity or that it is allegorical. So while a conventional bus is, of course, a possibility it should come as no surprise if the set does’t involve a real bus. Quite what it all means is something of a mystery but it seems to have an uncanny ability to be all things to all people.

The action opens with the bus driver stopping his bus at night in a wood. You can guess that it won’t necessarily be a realistic wood.

The Crescent Theatre’s production was on a completely open stage with no masking whatsoever and a bare back wall. The “wood” was a series of flown gauze panels onto which had been painted texts from the major world religions.

My initial inclination for the opening scene, which takes up over half the action, was to head for my usual night time combination of Supergel 74, Night Blue (a personal favourite) with 200, Double CTB from the E-Colour+ range with leaf break-up gobos to give the idea of moonlight shining through the trees and to pick our faces. Even on a wholly unnatural set such a natural, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say conventional, combination could work very nicely. But, from the outset the protagonist is hurled into a personal hell as first she realises that the bus isn’t going where she thought, the bus driver, Herman, dismisses her innocent protestations, accuses her of fare dodging, then breaks her hand. Her fellow then passengers either take the bus driver’s side or ignore her pleas for help.

Watching my first rehearsal I realised that if I was going to reflect the script and performances then conventional combinations wouldn’t be right. Now I have no idea what colours any of us might find in hell but my starting point was that it’s unlikely to be like anything we find in nature. Once you’ve come to that conclusion you’re almost forced to the magenta- purple end of the spectrum. Well, I was. Whether you agree with that is a matter for you once you’ve looked at the photos.

From the back we used Supergel 46, magenta with various break up gobos, 78245 and 77402 while mixed in from the front is E-Colour+ 341, Plum. The final touch was Supergel 370, Italian Blue in a pair of chin busters down stage left and right which gave some contrast to the dominant magenta thereby adding some dimension to the actors.

Anton's garage in the middle of nowhere, it is still night time. Anton is an amiable drunk who doesn't make any effort with his garage and I wanted to create the impression of a single bare bulb over the seating area with darker corners. The "wood" is still in evidence outside the garage and maintains it's magenta state but just using the gobos on the "trees". Inside the garage I created an outer area in E-Colour+ 017 while the inner area was lit from with just a single fresnel in E-Colour+ 213, white flame green. I was happy for the action to move between the two colour spaces.

BIOGRAPHY:

Patrick Neame is a photographer by profession and as a lover of the theatre, stage lighting is a natural enthusiasm. He paints with light, the literal translation of the etymological roots of the word photography. He began his career at The Lace Market Theatre in Nottingham under the tutelage of John K. Leventhall. A move to the Birmingham Post & Mail in 1989 took him to The Crescent Theatre where he has lit many shows in both the old and new theatres. Among the noteable productions he cites: Faustus, Ghosts and Time of My Life in the old theatre and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Macbeth and The Rise and Fall of Little Voice in the new theatre. The Weir is another production of which he is particularly proud and has been featured in “Using Light Brilliantly.”

Photo Credit: Luciano Romano
ACT 1

Photo Credit: Luciano Romano
ACT 2

Photo Credit: Luciano Romano
ACT 3

The Abduction from the Serraglio

This is a show that I recall very fondly.

Before doing the lighting design I spent days photographing real boats moored in local ports. I looked for the most diverse lighting conditions.

The opera is set in a modern, floating harem called the “Palace.” The boat could rotate 360 degrees giving the public many different view points. It was almost inevitable that we used the PVC cyclorama to suggest the psychological states of the characters and the time of day while following the music, libretto and the stage direction. The cyclorama lighting changed constantly and in order to illuminate it I used several different types of luminaires, HMI, Incandescent, all high output because the PVC cyclorama was very large. It was a great challenge to reproduce the colours on the cyclorama that I had envisioned. Many of the colours that I used were very saturated because the opera is a satire and presents strongly contrasting characters.

Act 1
Colours used were E-Colour+ 241, 366 and 063. The action of the opera takes place during one day . The realistic day lighting underwent many changes as the boat revolved. I added fresnels, 14 Svoboda units and motorized lights to light the cyclorama and bounce reflected light off the glossy deck. The colours are almost complimentary which has a comic effect but also implies opposing characters and ideas.

End of Act 2
Colours used were Supergel, 313, 21, 22, 73 and Cal Color 4360 60 Cyan. The first effect is one of heightened realism with a very strong contrast between the late afternoon sky and the coloured water shadows on the boat. The lighting started out realistic but became more stylized as the day progressed towards sunset.

Act 3
Colours used were Supergel 74, 76, and E-Colour+ 242. Here the difficulty was separating the boat from the cyclorama in this nightime scene. This was achieved by contrasting colours and constantly changing the lighting on the revolving boat and changing the colours and shapes on the PVC cyclorama.


Musical Director - Jeffrey Tate
Director- Damiano Michieletto
Set Design- Paolo Fantin
Costumes- Silvia Aymonino
Lighting Design- Alessandro Carletti

BIOGRAPHY:

Alessandro Carletti was born in Rome. He studied photography and painting in order to be able to investigate light, a passion that comes from a family tradition. As a child he followed his father’s work in the productions of Carmelo Bene and the Teatro Eliseo. He extended his development to television and film as a camera operator and then as assistant to Vincenzo Leoni. His last experience as Director of Photography was for Noutjoum El Ouloum, in Doha (Qatar), an experience born from a collaboration with Wolfgang Von Zoubek. At the Rossini Opera Festival he consolidated his experience in opera thanks to the guidance of Mauro Brecciaroli. He has designed lighting for directors like Giancarlo Sepe, Mary Stuart, Maurizio Scaparro, Romeo and Juliet, and Lamberto Puggelli, The Immaginary Invalid. Meeting Guido Levi with whom he has collaborated on the design of numerous productions for directors like Yannis Kokkos, Franco Ripa Di Meana, Daniele Abbado, Giorgio Battistelli and Josef Francoli Lee has been fundamental to his career. Together they designed the lighting for the autobiografical opera of Silvano Bussotti, Sylvano Silvano, directed by Francesco Micheli. In 2009 he designed The Abduction from the Serraglio for the Teatro San Carlo in Naples directed by Damiano Michieletto with whom he has collaborated since 2008 with Jackie ‘O at Lugo and La Scala di Seta at the Rossini Opera Festival.

www.alessandrocarletti.com

Lady From The Sea

This is a scene from “Lady From The Sea”. Supergel 74, Night Blue, is one of my favourite "go to" colours and somehow ends up finding it's way into most of my projects. It is truly robust, both in the way that it stands up to my cyclorama equipment or downlight, and in the way that it maintains its essence as it dims, staving off amber drift and contamination by warmer light temperatures, not growing muddy. In my work it is critical to know the characteristics of the materials I have at hand and consistency is essential; Supergel 74, along with any of the Supergel colours I use, is always reliable and beautiful.

BIOGRAPHY:

Based in Rome, American lighting designer A.J. Weissbard has worked worldwide designing for theatre, video, exhibition, permanent architectural installation and special events. He has collaborated on projects with Robert Wilson, Peter Stein, Luca Ronconi, Daniele Abbado, Bernard Sobel, Peter Greenaway, William Kentridge, Fabrizio Plessi, Giorgio Armani, Gae Aulenti, Pierluigi Cerri, Richard Gluckman, Matteo Thun, Fabio Novembre, and David Cronenberg, among many others.

His work has been seen presented in major opera houses, festivals and theatres including Lincoln Center NY, Los Angeles Opera, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Opera Garnier and Theatre du Chatelet Paris, Brussels Opera La Monnaie, Teatro Real Madrid, Teatro alla Scala, Piccolo Teatro Milano, the Schaubuhne Berlin, Esplanade Singapore and Bunka Kaikan Tokyo; and for multimedia and exhibits in museums including the Guggenheim New York and Bilbao, Royal Academy London, Petit Palais Paris, Vitra Design Museum, Milano Triennale, Palazzo Reale Milano, Kunstindustrimuseum Copenhagen, Shanghai Art Museum; and for unique events at venues including Aichi World Expo 2005, Biennale di Venezia, Salone del Mobile Milan, and the Bienal de Valencia.

He was recently awarded the first IFSArts award for Lighting Design.

www.ajweissbard.com/