Strictly Ballroom the Musical calls upon GLP’s X4
Published: ASIA
AUSTRALIA: Currently residing at Melbourne’s Her Majesty Theatre, Strictly Ballroom the Musical has been touring Australia in recent weeks. Lighting designer for the production, Hugh Vanstone, specified GLP impression X4 fixtures to support the show, relying upon 19 low-rigged X4s, with some acting as footlights, some in low FOH box boom/ashtray positions and some on the tops of each of the roving booms used throughout the show.
Head electrician Ben Wilcocks reports that since the show opened, the team hasn’t had to swap out any of the fixtures. ‘To tell you the truth, apart from the odd clean, we haven’t had to do anything to the impression X4 so I’ve been really happy with them,’ he said. ‘Because they are so small and easily moved, they are ideal for getting shots that other lights can’t.’
‘The units do transfer and rig easily,’ agreed production electrician, Dale Mounsey. 'Their light weight makes them easy to rig by one person in any position, even over-rigged on a pipe. Our roving boom units travel pre-rigged at the top of our booms. We have never had any travel related issues with touring them in that way.’
‘There are many features to be impressed about, including the pan and tilt speed, which is great,’ added Mr Mounsey. ‘Another specific feature that impressed us is the ability to control each individual LED in the fixture. As an example, our X4 footlights are mounted just off the front of the stage, and to keep them out of sight lines they are mounted just below the level of the stage. When Hugh wanted to do a face shot of someone standing further upstage than normal, we had to tilt the fixture down. But this meant we were lighting the front face of the stage as well as the actor. Hugh’s solution to this was to turn off all the LED’s on the bottom three rows of the fixture. This stopped the light hitting the front edge, and still left enough of the very bright LED’s on to light the actor’s face upstage.’
The production moves to Brisbane’s QPAC Theatre next month.