DALLAS – The Festival of Independent Theatres (FIT) is a four-week festival comprised of small theatre companies producing new or avant-garde works. In its 14th season, the FIT is showcasing the work of eight local theatre companies as well as showcasing the capabilities of the new Selecon PLCyc LED Luminaire from Philips Strand Lighting. LD Jaymes Gregory was apprehensive about using LED fixtures, until he saw how they solved his design challenges.
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DALLAS – The City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs (OCA) creates opportunities for local artists and cultural organizations to showcase their talents. One performance venues supported by the OCA, the Bath House Cultural Center (BHCC), hosts an annual one-act play festival called the Festival of Independent Theatres (FIT), a four-week festival comprised of small theatre companies producing seldom seen, new or avant-garde works. Now in its 14th season, the FIT is showcasing the work of eight local theatre companies, but it also showcasing the capabilities of the new Selecon PLCyc LED Luminaire from Philips Strand Lighting.
Dallas-based freelance lighting designer Jaymes Gregory, in his third year with the fest, said, “In this type of festival setting, I don’t know what each company wants their show to look like until we actually get into the first tech rehearsals. It’s like shooting blind, so the first thing I have to do when creating the festival plot is to make sure we have full stage coverage and a variety of looks for the back cyc.”
As he begins the design process to create his lighting plot, Gregory starts with the basics, and then works in the color. He knows that he could be asked to create any number of looks, and so he must prepare accordingly.
“Basically what I do is grid it out so that each company has nine different isolated areas they can play with and we try to keep the color palette as interesting as possible. We want each company to have a warm or cool look, and the option to use the cyc to play with different times of day and emotions within the staging of the scripts. The lighting has to be flexible and give them a number of colors.”
In previous years at the FIT, Gregory has seen challenges with the performance of the older cyc lights at the BHCC. This year he would be handed a new solution.
“This year, before we started tech, I got a call saying the BHCC had purchased the new LED Cyc lights. I was apprehensive at first because from my experience there really isn’t a lot of acceptable LED in the cyc light area. So my initial reaction was to think that either the BHCC had spent a lot of money on the new fixtures or this was going to be a nightmare.”
“We actually purchased the first eight PLCyc luminaires to roll off the assembly line in North America as part of a lighting upgrade,” said Theresa Furphy, BHCC Technical Coordinator. “Our previous cyc lights were reaching the end of their life span, and when I saw the PLCyc, I knew that it would be the perfect light for us. We host many different theatre, music, and dance companies throughout the year and our cyc gets used quite a bit, and now we get a virtually unlimited color palette, we do not have to worry about gel costs, and we can run them all off a single 20 Amp circuit.”
The cyclorama at the BHCC measures 9’ x 20’ and the grid trims at only 9’. Getting a full color mix from a small throw distance has always been an issue, but with the PLCyc luminaire, that issue is no more.
Gregory continued, “With the PLCyc the color is fantastic and really rich. It provides a nice, big, full wall of color ,which is everything you want from a cyc light, and it draws a significantly less power. When I asked how many dimmers they were running on, and I was told they are running from a single circuit, now that’s amazing.”
Furphy added, “The BHCC has a dimmer capacity of only 45 dimmers, which includes the house lighting. To free up dimmer space by installing the PLCyc fixtures was a tremendous advantage. Plus, I can hang the cyc lights myself. It was close to impossible for one person to hang a strip, and now the whole cyc can be done in a fraction of the time. Their ease-of-use is incredible.”
With many small theatre companies, production budgets are also a concern. The same applies to the production budget of the FIT, but this year, the budget got a boost.
“Because we are not a large festival, the FIT has to be budget conscious, and to be able to cut the cyc gel budget was a significant advantage,” admitted Gregory. “While it may sound like a small line item, it’s not. We were burning through gel like crazy. The PLCyc has none of these issues and that has been both a time-saver on the tech crew and a money savings on the final budget.”
“The PLCyc luminaires are awesome,” he added. “The color mix rocks and that impressed me the most. Before we started, I had no idea they were actually RGBW. To have the white tint has been amazing. It’s opened up a whole new world because the color options are limitless. Next year, I am looking forward to using them on the floor and hanging in the grid to create an even more dynamic and beautiful color wash. They truly are an amazing LED cyc light.”
