MELBOURNE, Australia – For Madeleine, Black Sequin Productions' exploration of schizophrenia and its effect on a young woman and her family, LD Ben Cobham of Bluebottle led the design team that used 33 lighting fixtures, including an ETC Source Four Revolution. Adopting a "no fat" approach, Cobham and Bluebottle chose a minimalist approach to the both the set and lighting design for the production, which takes the audience inside the world of a schizophrenic young woman and reveals the impact her illness has for those around her.
The set design includes a large green marmoleum floor with a wooden table and six matching stools. The lighting rig includes incandescent strips integrated within the set, standard theatrical fixtures including profiles, fresnels and a few scrollers, and a single ETC Source Four Revolution fixture.
"We used saturated color shifts to locate time and space," said Cobham, who worked with assistant designer Tom Rogers and others including Jen Hector, Frog Peck and Blair Hart on the production.
"The floor surface and table top acted as a blank canvas which was manipulated by light," Cobham noted. "Add green to green for an intense green and lots of reflected green light. Add red to green, and the floor moves towards black. When these options are used in the correct order and for the right time frames, the result is very pleasing."
The ETC Source Four Revolution played a key role, mounted above the large table situated downstage center. Noting that the fixture was "shuttered very tightly," Cobham used to produce color shifts, to crop parts of the table and to follow performers from above "like an overhead dome," he said. "We got one fixture to perform many tasks, lean and mean." He also credited the fixture's quiet operation.
"Its tungsten-based lamp marries into the rig well too," Cobham noted. "I find the front mounted scroller simple, and it allowed us to swipe the table top and keeps color 100 percent accurate with other fixtures in the rig. It's also well priced compared with other units with similar functions."
For more information, please visit www.jands.com.au or www.etcconnect.com.
