The Toxic Avenger – The Musical is now earning critical praise in the United Kingdom with help from a richly textured lighting design that features a collection of CHAUVET Professional fixtures. This design was created by Nic Farman.
The London-based LD deployed ten Maverick MK2 Spots, six Maverick MK1 Hybrids, 14 Ovation E-910FC profiles and eight Ovation B-2805FC batten fixtures throughout his rig to help create the “Toxic Tromaville” world the show is set in.
“I wanted the lighting design to be a key storytelling element,” commented Farman. “I’ve worked with the creative team on this show a number of times before and we love creating work that is bold and fun. The director, Benji Sperring, allows me to make the lighting integral to a production and to create stage pictures filled with color and texture that support the action on stage.”
Hung overhead, the Maverick MK1 Hybrid fixtures were chosen for their flexibility and were used to create everything from saturated colored washes to tight pin spot beams and gobo washes, allowing the lighting to instantly change the stage dynamic.
The stage wash was handled by 14 Ovation E-910FC profiles that were rigged front of house. Thanks to the RGBA-Lime unit‘s color mixing capabilities, Farman was able to cover the stage with an array of saturated colors.
“The Ovation profiles provide me with great flexibility thanks to their brilliant color and smooth crossfading between hues, which is important in this show as color plays a huge role,” he explained. “They’re also incredibly bright, which was great for getting the balance right in certain numbers in the show where we really wanted the color to be punchy.”
The stage design includes a large printed cloth of the Manhattan skyline that Farman lit with eight Ovation B-2805FC battens. The Ovation battens rigged behind the cloth provide the bright output to make this effect work. Maverick MK2 Spot fixtures were used not only to provide texture across the stage, but also to spot actors in the absence of followspots.
“Even though the throw from front of house is fairly small, the units have a great zoom, which gives me full coverage of the stage,” said Farman. “I’ve been really impressed with their smooth movement, which has been important when we’re doing live move tracking of actors on stage. We also use them for a lot of gobo washes across the set and auditorium.”
