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Bandit Lights CbeeBies
For the second year running, Bandit Lites UK has supplied full lighting production to the CBeebies Live! UK arena tour. This year titled ‘Wonderland’, it’s a two-part, action packed multi-act show starring The Tweenies, The Teletubbies, Bob The Builder, Postman Pat, Fireman Sam and many others.
The high profile tour is produced by BBC Worldwide, and runs all over the Christmas and the New Year period, three shows a day, most days. It culminates in being the first show to inaugurate the brand new Liverpool Echo Arena in January.
Once again, Bandit’s Lester Cobrin assisted in realizing Mark Cunniffe’s lighting design, utilizing a fast-paced blend of theatre and televisual techniques, which is operated on tour by Ewan Cameron.
The rig is based on four triangular trusses constructed from three 24ft A-type trusses, hung above a thrust stage with a circular end – making it almost in-the-round. The triangles all have white gauze stretched across their inside edges, accentuating their shapes for lighting and projected effects. They also make an attractive shaped roof above the stage, and offer great flexibility in terms of all the moving lights being able to hit almost anywhere on the stage.
Each triangle is identical in terms of lights, with six Martin Professional MAC 2000 washes, three Vari*Lite 3000 profiles, two 4-lamp bars of PARs and four bars of ACLs, plus four UV cannons and three strings of egg-strobe festoon. The two downstage triangles also have 16 linear 4-lite DWE units for audience illumination – it is a highly interactive show in that way.
On the floor are eight VL3000s at the back and sides of stage and six VL 2500 profiles focused on the set. Bandit has also supplied 24 Pulsar ChromaStrips which are used in the set, two haze machines, four Lycian 2k Xenon followspots and a rigging package including 44 Lodestar hoists.
The rig involves a massive amount of cable, all of which has to be managed practically and neatly, and to facilitate this, they are running a 90ft cable truss above the stage right side, which picks everything and runs it expediently back to dimmers.
Cunniffe did most of the programming during production rehearsals at Elstree Studios. Cameron runs the show from a grandMA console, and with over 220 cues it’s a busy show requiring concentration and keeping him on his toes! There are a lot of big, bold bright looks along with plenty of moments of drama, glamour and high impact effects.
This year, projection runs across the back of the stage, so the lighting has been designed to synchronise and be sympathetic to what is happening on screen. Another reason for the triangular rig above the thrust is that it keeps lights away from the projection areas.
Cameron is joined by Bandit crew members Nigel Julian, Tom Crosbie and Dom Martin, and commented: “You know you can rely on Bandit to send out excellent gear and crew, so that helps everything run very smoothly. It’s a relatively straightforward show to rig and operate, with the challenge lying in the intense schedule.”
The tour is production managed by Nigel Mousley, with Show Support supplying video and sound.
3rd January 2008
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