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A Moving Light Revolution at Moscow’s New Et Cetera Theater
Et Cetera Theater is a newly built, six-storey, 8,940 sq m performing arts facility that opened recently in Moscow. For more than a decade, home for the theatre’s troupe was a smaller building on Moscow’s Arbat Street. This year marks a new beginning as the troupe takes over the new one-million-rouble (£20,000) facility near the city’s centre. Designed by architects A. Kuz’min, A. Bokov, A. Velikanov and M. Belitsa, Et Cetera has two halls – a main hall with a capacity of 650 and a smaller hall of 150 called ‘Efrosovskiy Hall,’ named after Anatoliy Efros, Et Cetera artistic director Aleksandr Kalyagin’s favourite director. Theatre designers wanted to fit out the new halls with the latest in stage technology, including moving lights. So they chose ETC’s Source Four Revolutions – 48 of them – setting a record for the most Revolutions in a single European venue.
The new automated fixtures have been hung throughout the theatre in order to light every aspect of the stage, doing away with the refocusing work of dozens of conventional luminaires on many positions. Several of the Revolutions are located in the seating area, so the audience can see them in action during performances.
Et Cetera’s lighting designers are excited about the automated lights, because they allow for more design creativity and capability. Ambitious upcoming shows include Morphine, adapted from writings of Mikhail Bulgakov, and The Death of Tarelkin by Aleksandr Sukhovo-Kobylin. Et Cetera’s new season begins in November.
Aside from the Revolution fixtures, Et Cetera also has 176 Source Four conventional luminaires, 112 Source Four PARs and 48 Source Four PARNels. The main hall also has four ETC Sensor+ dimmer racks and an ETC Unison CMEi architectural control system, which controls the lighting of a large chandelier suspended above the audience. Designed by Kalyagin to increase the audience’s anticipation of the coming show, the chandelier hangs low over the audience, blocking the theatre’s sightlines. Just before the lights go down, it rises dramatically into the ceiling to reveal breathtaking views of the stage.
Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov and the Bank of Moscow provided the land and funds to construct the new arts centre. Despite the nickname ‘Kalyagin’s Theater’, the official name of the theatre, ‘Et Cetera’, was chosen by Kalyagin to honour the continuous change theatre inspires, connecting people to the past, while at the same time moving forward into the future.
Light Power Design (LPD), a theatre-technology distributor based out of Moscow, handled the lighting installation for Et Cetera.
25th May 2007
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