FAYETTEVILLE, AR — Not everyone gets the opportunity to light a world spiritual figure. Aaron Brown, Lighting Designer/Director at TES Productions in Tulsa, OK, recently had that rare honor — lighting two lectures at the University of Arkansas by the Tibetan Buddhist leader Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama. Revered by many worldwide and referred to by his followers as “His Holiness,” the Dalai Lama is no conventional “talent,” and this was no ordinary lecture hall — but the University of Arkansas’ Bud Walton Arena – a basketball arena.
The Dalai Lama appeared in two forums when he visited the university. There was a morning panel discussion entitled Turning Swords into Ploughshares: The Many Paths of Non-Violence. He also delivered a keynote address entitled Non-Violence in the New Century: The Way Forward.
In keeping with the Dalai Lama’s espoused philosophy of simplicity and moderation, and despite the size of the venue, Brown envisioned the production as minimalist but still lit to inspire, with clarity and warmth. “My design was fairly simple. We needed an even front- and backstage wash for a panel discussion, and front- and backlight specials for a podium. The set lighting was a little trickier. I wanted a conventional look with the ability to change the color of the set.”
The stage was swathed in red curtains accented by two gold curtains elegantly gathered with gold rope. These flanked the minimal seating needed for the lecture series: two sets of two gold armchairs placed on either side of a red loveseat accented by small wooden tables. A lectern was perched stage right. All of these elements were downlit by 20 Chauvet COLORado 1 Tri Tour wash lights from a proscenium truss.
TES productions supplied full technical production, including lighting, AV, staging and sound, for the lectures, which were attended by more than 10,000 people. Brown, who worked with a stage and set designed by Megan Stevens, was asked to factor audience lighting into his design, since the arena only had basketball lights. A set of special red and white drapes, custom-made by Rose Brand, played a key role in the look of the set, and also served as a starting point for the lighting design.
Brown wanted to accentuate their simple beauty and the dramatic impact they had on the space by highlighting and texturing, using a combination of LED and conventional fixtures to change the color of the fabric throughout the show. He used 12 Source Four PARs with narrow lenses on the mid-stage trusses focused down the curtains and eight Robe ROBIN 600 LEDWashes on the deck for drape up-lighting.
On the downstage truss, along with the Chauvet fixtures, four Robe ColorSpot 1200E ATs with breakup gobos were used for the pre-show set look. The rig also included 28 ETC Source Four PARnels and seven Source Four 19° ellipsoidal spotlights, plus two Robe CitySkape 48s for downlighting and two Lekos for podium specials.
For lighting control, Brown used an ETC Ion console and two 48-channel SmartPack touring racks. Brown noted that the Ion console proved to be well-suited to the magnitude of the venue lighting. “We graduated from the ETC SmartFade ML console about six months ago, and the Ion has been great. The Ion gave us greater control of our LED fixtures, so we could get the best color temperature.
“We have two 2×10 Ion Fader Wings, which make it very handy to control dimming channels on one wing on one side of the console, and intelligent lights for set design on the other wing on the other side,” Brown added. “I also hate using board tape, so being able to label the faders in the LCD screen was wonderful.
“The Ion console helped me dial the LEDs to a nice 3200k white to match the Source Four PARs,” Brown continued. “And I used 20 LED fixtures across the proscenium truss focused down to change the color of the main curtain.
“One great thing about the ROBIN LEDWash 600s is that you can dial in the exact color temperature you want,” Brown noted. This helped him blend LED and conventional light sources harmoniously so viewers wouldn’t be struck with visual discord between the different fixtures. “I also like the quick movement and the near-silent operation of the units as well as the incredible zoom,” said Brown, who also credited the touch-display panel for being user friendly.
Because the event needed to be housed in a basketball arena, “a lot of additional work went into it that would not be necessary in a more contained theater situation,” Brown continued. The basketball floor, for instance, required the laying of a double-plywood road through everywhere that the lift had to drive, which was particularly labor intensive and time consuming. There were also few places to rig where the stage had to be, so stage manager Don Worley and producer Scott Turner designed a sub grid with heavy-duty super truss, which provided rigging points wherever needed. They used four Barco R22 projectors, double stacked on two 20×36 custom-made rear-projection Da-Lite screens. (Video was directed by Jamie Wright and engineered by Kevin Frankenburger).
Once setup issues had been resolved, Brown had only one bout of lighting-design doubt: “When the Dalai Lama came on stage for the panel discussion — the first of two shows that day — he sat down and almost immediately took out a small hat that matched his robe and put it on. I instantly questioned my stage-wash intensity, concerned that it might be too bright for him. But he didn’t wear the hat on the second show, so I breathed easier. It was still worrying me though that night back at the hotel, so I went to the Dalai Lama web site to look at other photos of other events he has appeared at, and it turns out he always wears a hat when on stage but doesn’t appear to when he gives a speech from the podium. I was quite relieved.”
For more information, please visit www.tesproductions.com, www.etcconnect.com and www.robe.cz.
