Last month saw the opening of the Lavender Theatre – a brand-new, open air 250-seat theatre space located in the Mayfield Lavender Fields in Surrey. The theatre, which also features a coffee bar, shop and full glasshouse restaurant, offers audiences a unique live performance experience in a picturesque setting; with its inaugural production being a revival of the musical classic Annie Get Your Gun. As with any theatrical space, Lavender Theatre had to create a lighting infrastructure that could deliver both artistically for its shows as well as practically, given its location. With vast experience of transforming empty spaces into performance venues, White Light (WL) was called upon to supply the lighting equipment on this occasion.
The lighting designer at Lavender Theatre is Adam King, who was tasked with creating and overseeing the entire lighting set-up. He explains: “My brief was fairly simple – we needed to come up with something that would accentuate the performers on stage, provide practical coverage for audience members as they arrived and walked through the fields, as well as accentuate the beauty of the location. One of the biggest factors to consider was actually the power and how this was going to be delivered across an outdoor site; something for which I brought in Prod LX Jake Rowe to advise on. Alongside the stage itself, we also had to consider coverage for front-of-house, backstage as well as where the cables would run and where we could hide them; all on what is effectively a working Lavender Farm!”.
A project as ambitious as this obviously takes some planning; along with a series of continual adjustments along the way. He explains: “The theatre has been in planning for well over a year and I came on board about four months before its official opening. On my first visit to the site, there literally nothing there aside from a dug-out section indicating where the theatre was going to be! The initial site visits for projects like these are always interesting as, unlike a conventional theatre, you are effectively designing for something that doesn’t yet exist. You’re building everything from scratch and need to ensure you take every single thing into consideration”.
When it came to deciding what fixtures to draw on, Adam reached out to the WL Hire Team, noting their experience on outdoor performance spaces such as Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, Garsington Opera and the various Secret Cinemas. Adam explains: “Perhaps the most important aspect when acquiring kit was that it needed to be IP-rated (even in the British Summer, you have to expect the rain!). Equally the equipment needed to be versatile, especially when it came to colour changing, as well as fit into our budget; something WL was extremely accommodating with. In terms of artistic factors, unlike a conventional theatre, there weren’t really any hanging positions so I had to take this into account. I also had to consider, given we were outside, the impact of the sun and where this would set in relation to the stage. My aim in Act One was to try and blend with the colour of the sun so that, on sunny evenings, you would get this beautiful orange glow into people’s faces as the end of act one approached and we entered ‘the golden hour’.
He continues: “Similarly, as you are outside in a lavender field, whilst you want the main focus to be what’s happening on stage, you equally want to accentuate the beauty of these distinctive surroundings. As such, building big truss structures that would look distracting and out-of-place against such a picturesque setting were simply not an option. Given the rear of the stage was a set of trees, we naturally allowed these to be lit up and create a versatile, moving backdrop as the wind blew through them. This was then repeated around the site with other trees illuminated to bring some coherence between the stage and site”.
In terms of equipment, the main fixtures Adam drew on included the Chauvet Ovation E-910 FC IP65 LED Profile, the Elation SixPAR 200IP, the LumiPix15 RGBW IP65 LED Batten and the Chauvet Colorado Panel Q40 LED Washlight. He explains: “The Chauvet Ovation E-910s were used as the main face and sidelight into the stage. They were punchy with great colour changing ability which made them prefect for the job. With the Chauvet Q40 Washlights, we used four of these on the main structure to act as front light for big colour washes as and when required. The other four were used to uplight the trees behind the stage and these really looked magical in the way the light reflected on them. We also used the Elation SixPAR to light up the trees as well as offer a low sidelight on the stage to help pull out the colour in the actors’ costumes. With the LumiPix15, these were used as footlights along the front of the stage for dance numbers and also allowed us to perform certain chase effects, such as the scene on the train in Annie Get Your Gun.
Of course, a project as unique as this comes with its own unique challenges; yet this was something Adam was able to overcome: “Essentially, I managed to design the lighting for a theatre that didn’t exist which was a first for me! Not only that but it was an incredibly wide space – close to 20m if memory serves. It was always a case of being intelligent with the resources we had and ensuring we came up with creative solutions to fulfil the brief and ensure the audience’s experience was completely unforgettable”.
The Lavender Theatre’s inaugural season came to a close earlier this month, following standing ovations, critical acclaim and award nominations. It will be returning once again next year, with a list of shows set to be announced in the Autumn.
Adam concludes: “This has been a truly incredible project to be a part of – seeing Lavender go from an empty space to a fully-functioning theatre was just fantastic. I’d like to thank the whole team involved with the venue as well as everyone at WL for their continued support throughout”.
Photos courtesy of Harry Elletson.
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