A recent run of the show Walk Like A Man at Blackpool’s historic Grand Theatre used a lighting design of CHAUVET Professional fixtures, created by Ollie Wilkinson of Arranpaul Ltd.
“Our team at Arranpaul has spent a substantial amount of years building a relationship with the Grand Theatre,” said Wilkinson. “This was the perfect opportunity to collaborate with them once again with a colorful lighting concept to reflect the energy and vibrancy of this critically acclaimed show.”
Wilkinson hung five Rogue R1 Spot fixtures above the stage to back light the performers, creating an evocative mood. He also shook up his look by occasionally driving his spot fixtures slightly out of focus to use them as wash lights.
“I wanted this show to represent the generation that the music was bringing back to life, so I wanted a fixture that would provide me with some powerful old school looks, mixed with a sense of surprise,” said Wilkinson. “Not only did the R1 enable us to create static spotlights behind each singer on stage, it also gave us the ability to create saturated washes. We also used our Q-Washes to add motion and excitement to the stage, creating a sense of something being about to happen.”
While his moving fixtures provided performance-defining looks, Wilkinson also utilized CHAUVET DJ Pix Par 24 fixtures to illuminate sections of large white cloth, which partitioned the band from the singers.
“The Pix Par 24s lit the upstage ‘sails’ from top to bottom with saturated strong wash colors,” continued Wilkinson. “This allowed me to have an almost two-tone effect with the cloths, which added a great deal of depth and perspective to the stage.”
The Arrenpaul team also made use of the CHAUVET Professional Net-X Art-Net system, so they didn’t have to run DMX Multicores from FOH to stage.
“Using CHAUVET Professional’s Net-X system allowed us to set up, program and execute the entire show with absolute ease,” said Wilkinson. “I always try to extract the best possible looks from the fixtures at hand. Here, the Chauvet fixtures allowed me to create some memorable scenes to give support to the claim that Blackpool is still the entertainment capital of the UK. As a proud Blackpool native, I couldn’t be happier with the results!”
