Technology

Interesting week for me.... two on the road performances for a one-man play performing as Charles Dickens narrating A Christmas Carol. During the last 16 years of his life, Charles Dickens gave 444 readings of his works in Great Britain, the United States and Europe to deafening acclaim. His and the public's favourite was A Christmas Carol.

We swung to both ends of technology for these two gigs - one was held in a community hall and another in a turn of the century church.

For the performance at St Peter's Anglican Church in Elmore, there was limited power available. We had two 10A power points to work with, hence low power lamps were the order of the day. For frontal lighting, we had two Selecon 650W PCs for some control, with 4 Par56 300W lamps giving us a general wash. This was complemented with four Par56 300W lamps for a cool and warm backlight. All these were controlled and powered off two quad dimmer/fader packs. The production manager ran the cues manually off the quad packs and managed to do a very respectable job.

The Rusty Divas performing in the church.

The two quad packs running the show at Elmore.

For the performance at the Heathcote RSL Hall, we were fortunate to have a three-phase power supply, hence I was able to bring in a Jands 12-channel dimmer and control all lx via my Macbook Pro running on Windows XP with the Robert Juliat Espion Console software. We set up a full galore of front, side and backlight for this performance, running off 55 cues off the Macbook. We also hired some pipe and drape to block off half of the hall in order to shrink the space and make it more 'theatrical' and intimate for the audience.

Phil Zachariah as Dickens at the Heathcote RSL Hall

Lighting control via a Macbook Pro with WinXP running the Robert Juliat Espion Console program

I think both shows were very successful despite limitations in terms of technical operations. You don't really need a lot of fancy gear if you've got a good production and some creativity and ingeniuty in making the equipment work for you in all kinds of different situations. I often raise an eyebrow when I meet people who send me a technical rider full of demands and requirements, some of which are never practical for touring smaller venues. I think many times, there is a need to go back to basics of the essence of what theatre and entertainment is all about. No amount of fancy gear can save a mediocre performance, but a brilliant performance can lift it beyond the physical limitations of a space.

In many of the projects I've work on, it's often I have to think out of the box to solve issues related to budget, physical limitations, and creative vision of the artistic team. Issues related to budgets are especially very real for the clients, and the technician that is able to see beyond the gear will go far in this field.....