Leicester’s new performing arts centre selects White Light to supply the lighting rig for the buildingCurve, the new performing arts centre for Leicester has chosen White Light to supply the complete lighting rig for the new building, which opened Saturday 1st November 2008.
The new building, designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects and intended to replace the Leicester Haymarket and form the centrepiece of the city’s new Cultural Quarter, will provide an incredibly versatile series of performance spaces: a principal 750 seat theatre and smaller 350-seat studio theatre with back to back stage, but with the ability to remove the divide between the two stages to create one traverse performance space, or even open the stages up to the spectacular glass foyers and to the world outside if required by a particular production.
Such a versatile building obviously needs a highly versatile stock of lighting equipment to expand upon the range of equipment which will be moved to the new venue from the Haymarket. Curve’s ‘wish list’ was arrived at in long discussions between theatre consultants Charcoal Blue, Graham Lister, the theatre’s development director, production electrician Ian Moulds, acting as a lighting consultant for the venue, and others involved in lighting, particularly those with a connection with Leicester‘s theatres - most notably designer Chris Ellis who has lit many shows at the Haymarket.
The final package includes conventional lighting, moving lights, followspots, scrollers, rigging, portable dimming and more. Much of the equipment is being sourced from the companies for which White Light is the exclusive UK distributor. This includes a comprehensive selection of Robert Juliat equipment (RJ710 profiles, LeCin'k, 329 and Lutin fresnels, Aramis and Super Korrigan followspots), colour scrollers from Rainbow (6” Pro, 8” Pro, 12” Pro, 15” Pro), smoke and haze from Look Solutions (Viper and Unique machines) and dimming from LSC (Redback six-way dimmer racks).
Demonstrating that White Light can offer the widest possible range of equipment, the rig will also include Avo ART2000 touring dimmers, Source Four profiles and battens from ETC, Pars from Thomas, beamlights from R&V, Ministrip battens from L&E, cyc lighting from Altman, Thomas and Selecon plus White Light’s new 350LFX effects projector with VSFX drive units. Moving lights include tungsten Alpha Halo Washlights from Clay Paky, and Mac700 Spots and Washes from Martin.
White Light will also supply the venue with a comprehensive selection of rigging, cabling and other infrastructure, including internally wired bars, meat racks for storage, DMX cabling, Socapex cabling, spiders and stage boxes, ballet towers, Doughy stands and Slick Minibeam truss.
“We are delighted to be working with Graham and all of the team at Curve,” comments White Light’s Sales Director, Peter Threadgold. “They have been planning their venue and the equipment to go in to it for a long time; we’ll now make sure that they have everything they need in plenty of time for the building’s opening in the autumn.”
“White Light started as a rental company, and though we’ve long done much more than that, many still think of us only in that capacity,” comments White Light’s Managing Director Bryan Raven. “Our involvement with Curve demonstrates clearly that we are a great choice for equipment sales for even the biggest projects, able to offer the widest range of gear at competitive prices, all carefully prepared and ready to use. We are delighted that Leicester chose us, and look forward to a long working relationship with this exciting new theatre.”
Further information about Leicester’s CURVE can be found at www.curveonline.co.uk.