WEBSTER GROVES, MO – For the production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth staged by Webster University’s Conservatory of Theater Arts last fall, Seth Jackson and student LD Josh Murphy enhanced the visual look of the production by using four Claypaky Scenius moving head spotlights.
More details from Claypaky (www.claypaky.it) and ACT Lighting (www.actlighting.com):
The Conservatory, based in Webster Groves, Missouri, stages six student-designed and student-produced shows and a dance theater each season at the Lorreto Hilton Center. A classical version of “Macbeth” was directed by Bruce Longworth and played seven performances before Thanksgiving.
Student lighting designer, Josh Murphy, expressed an interest in “beefing up” the school’s lighting rig for “Macbeth,” so Seth Jackson called A.C.T Lighting, Inc. with whom he’s had a 20-year relationship dating from his concert touring work.
“We have our own lighting inventory, but Josh wanted more tools than we had on hand,” says Jackson, head of the concert design program and assistant professor of theatrical design. “The winners of a student competition to attend LDI had seen the Scenius fixtures at the convention and were eager to try them. A.C.T Lighting provided the opportunity for our students to put Scenius to work.”
Jackson emphasizes that the Conservatory differs from many other college theatrical programs in its goal of “training professionals from day one. We run with Equity rules and like to have technology fresh out of the gate for the students.” The student productions at the Lorreto Hilton Center share space with the Repertory Theater of St. Louis, whose season overlaps that of the school, and the Opera Theater of St. Louis, which plays a summer season. “A lot of our students also work on those productions,” Jackson explains.
The stage is a three-quarter thrust with an expansive overhead grid. The four Scenius spots hung in the grid where Murphy and his team “used pretty much every attribute of the light, including the strobe for lighting effects,” says Jackson. The Scenius fixtures were also used to give a lot of texture and treatments to surfaces.
He reports that the students “liked the quality of the beam – its brightness and flat-fieldness – as well as the quality of the color temperature. Our sound team also liked how quiet Scenius was – that was a big deal for them.”
The Conservatory ran its own grandMA2 light console, from A.C.T Lighting, for “Macbeth.” “The grandMA2 gets used a lot – whenever we need a professional console,” says Jackson. He’s a big proponent of MA desks, which he uses as the designer for C3 Presents’ Austin City Limits Festival and Lollapalooza.
A.C.T Lighting, Inc. is the exclusive distributor of Claypaky fixtures and MA Lighting products in North America.
