22 September 2016

Revolution in South African Theatre Lighting

Submitted by: Robyn Dalessandro
Revolution in South African Theatre Lighting

Splitbeam purchases 14 additional ETC Source Four Revolutions for the South African tour of Annie.

Gearhouse Splitbeam is a long-term professional Theatre equipment rental company which, according to its Managing Director Alistair Kilbee, prides itself on being one of only a handful of true theatre lighting specialists able to supply the requirements of international touring productions from West End, Broadway or anywhere else in the world.  As such, the company goes out of its way to ensure that they meet or exceed the service delivery expectations of each of their clients. So when there was an element they were unable to supply on the technical rider for the Pieter Toerien /Hazel Feldman version of Annie earlier this year, the company moved to purchase the missing stockholding for the show without missing a beat.  

“The RFP for the supply of lighting came in in March this year, so we had a bit of time to ensure that we could fully meet the requirement” says Alistair Kilbee, Managing Director at Gearhouse Splitbeam. “The rider specification is an exact duplicate of the UK tour design by Lighting Designer Ben Cracknell. While the touring team were happy to substitute VL3500 for the Mac Viper Performances; the bank of ETC Source 4 Revolutions for FOH front light and side light on the booms are an integral part of the design. “Annie is a true musical classic – a part of the canon of theatre productions” he says “and likewise, the ETC Source Four Revolution with its tungsten lamp, embodies all that is best in classic Theatrical lighting. We absolutely understood that this was the correct fixture for this particular show. As a matter of fact, the Revolution is the fixture of choice for many acclaimed Lighting designers because of the Tungsten source and its versatility and because of these specific attributes, it is not readily substituted.”  

Needless to say, the Splitbeam team was delighted to take delivery of the new product on 8th September. “This acquisition fills a key area that we feel has been lacking. ETC Revolutions are a standard requirement on Lighting Specifications for Musicals and Theatre productions internationally and are widely used on Theatrical stages and touring productions across the globe. Having these units on Annie means that there is no need to rig dozens of ETC Source 4 to achieve the requisite specials and general cover and the colour-changing facility further reduces the need for fixtures. Together with the existing stockholding, we now have sufficient ETC Revolution fixtures to replace and entire generic Front of House rig and we will be able to supply more theatre jobs with less fixture substitutions going forward” concludes Alistair.  

Annie runs in Johannesburg the TEATRO at Montecasino:  12 October 2016 to 27 November 2016 and in Cape Town at the ARTSCAPE Opera:  02 December 2016 to 8 January 2017. Splitbeam will be providing all the Lighting, Audio and Rigging for the show.