To light the vast curved cyclorama of designer Anthony Ward's set, lighting designer David Hersey makes use of a veritable battery of equipment including DHA Digital Light Curtains, Par56 battens, MR16 battens, Alto PCs, Par cans with CXI colour changers - and six White Light Toccata 2.5K projectors with VSFX cloud effects disks that provide a huge variety of stunning moving cloudscapes during the show. Three of the VSFX drives contain White Light's standard storm cloud disk, while the others use the Cirrus disk from DHA Lighting. The show makes use of the VSFX system's ability to rotate the drive unit around the projector to best match the cloud's direction of movement to the curvature of the cyclorama.
A further four Toccata's with VSFX effects are used from the circle front of the Gershwin Theatre to light the show's frontcloth, with two of the units again having storm clouds and two DHA's Cirrus clouds. All of the projectors are controlled from the show's Strand 550i lighting console via the VSFX FX/DMX DMX converter, allowing both cloud speed and direction to be varied during the show. The VSFX projectors, along with the rest of the rig, are being supplied to the production by Fourth Phase of New Jersey.
Produced by Cameron Mackintosh, Oklahoma! is directed by Trevor Nunn, choreographed by Susan Stroman, designed by Anthony Ward and lit by David Hersey. It opens at the Gershwin Theatre in New York on March 21st. Further information about the show can be found at www.oklahoma-themusical.com; further information about the VSFX optical effect system can be found at White Light's web site, www.whitelight.ltd.uk/vsfx.