Which is why as soon as they heard that City of Angels was to be this year's musical at LAMDA, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, lighting designers Rob Halliday and Alistair Grant knew that they were going to need as much help as current lighting technology could offer. "The show flows seamlesly from black-and-white to colour scenes, and the confines of LAMDA's MacOwan Theatre meant that most of the work in these transitions would fall to lighting rather than scenery" Halliday notes.
The designers therefore turned to The Moving Light Company for help, specifying a rig that included two Amptown Washlights, three Martin MAC500s and one Martin PAL1200. "The PAL1200, in particular, was ideal for this show", Halliday notes, "since with its automated shuttering and indexing gobos it could provide both the shafts of light and the many variations of a venetian blind that the film noire style of the show demanded" Control for the automated lighting and the conventional rig was through the MacOwan's own Strand 520 console, with the rig installed by the show's lighting team led by chief electrician Emily Oliver.
The Moving Light Company were delighted to continue their ongoing relationship with LAMDA, established when the MacOwan Theatre was the venue used to launch The Moving Light Company with the showcase Dancing with Light at the 1994 PLASA Show. The company has also held a number of Moving Light lectures at the college as part of The Training Initiative, the training scheme run by the White Light Group. White Light also enjoy a long history with the show, having supplied the lighting rig to the original West End production of City of Angels.
The LAMDA production of City of Angels was directed by Stephen Jameson and Anne Durham, designed by Poppy Mitchell with lighting by Rob Halliday and Alistair Grant. It appeared at the MacOwan Theatre in London from March 22nd-29th.
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