Presenting: Classic Gear Live, September 3-5th, Kensington Olympia, London

For the last sixteen years, Rob has been writing about the products that have shaped the entertainment industry - lighting, sound and more - in his monthly Classic Gear column for LSi magazine.

This year, Classic Gear is jumping off the page and into real life with Classic Gear Live, part of the PLASA Show which takes place this weekend (Sun 3-Tues 5 Sept) at Kensington Olympia in London.

The stand will feature some remarkable products, loosely themed around big anniversaries. There will be the pioneering, still remarkable Vari-Lite Artisan console and VL2 and VL4 moving lights from the mid-1980s. The first ever Cadac mixing console made for theatre from 1983. CCT’s Silhouette spotlights, which became the standard spotlights for a generation from 1973 onwards. Strand’s MMS memory console, launched in 1973, and their Patt 263 and Patt 264 spotlights (from 1963) and the lantern that is perhaps the ‘classic of classics’, the Patt 23, from 1953.

Alongside this will be audio equipment from some of the defining artists of the 1960s and 1970s, including th PA system used on Pink Floyd’s 1973 Dark Side of the Moon tour.

And because equipment is nothing without people, there will also be chances to meet and talk to the people who designed, made, sold, used or now preserve these remarkable products, including lighting designer and programmer Andrew Voller re-united with an Artisan console for the first time in twenty years, Dik Welland talking about looking after the Vari-Lite products over the years, Alan Luxford and John Wright talking about Strand’s products and history, Don Hindle talking about CCT Lighting and its Silhouette range, Mike Walker talking about the designing the sound for shows using Cadac mixing desks, plus Jon Primrose from the Theatrecrafts website, Paul Johnson from the Historic Stage Lighting Collective and Chris Hewitt from CH Vintage Audio.

It promises to be quite an event, quite a chance to hear the stories, to reminisce, to discover, or re-discover according to your age, these products whose influence is still felt today.

Classic Gear Live: [link]
Products On Show: [link]

Actors And Orchestra Together - EGBDF in Mumbai

Rob has just completed a short trip to Mumbai - his first visit to India - to work on the rarely-staged Tom Stoppard play Every Good Boy Deserves Favour. The show is rarely stage because it involves not just actors but a full orchestra performing the music written by André Previn - but here the forces of Mumbai’s National Centre for the Perfoming Arts and the Symphony Orchestra of India combined to bring the show to life.

Rob was once again working as associate lighting designer and lighting programmer with lighting designer Rick Fisher, with whom he has previously collaborated on projects around the world, with the pair both enjoying the re-union with the NCPA’s Head of Theatre and Film Bruce Guthrie, for whom they have both lit shows before. Alongside them were set designer Francis O’Connor, costume designer Pallavi Patel, sound designer Andy Collins, movement director Rachel D’Souza, music supervisor Matthew Scott and conductor Mikel Toms.

Rick and Rob received excellent support from the Mumbai-based assistant on the show, Akshay Khubchandani, who ensured everything required was available, up and working in the theatre as well as providing a wonderful host to this remarkable city.

As well as getting the show itself on, all involved took part in a workshop organised by the NCPA and stage manager Antonia Collins to introduce young people to the work required to get a show on - an event rapturously well received by those who attended it.

Such is the show’s success that it’s originally scheduled run has been extended by a week to give more people the chance to enjoy it.

Every Good Boy Deserves Favour Mumbai: [link]

Upcoming (Virtual!) Appearances

Rob will be involved in three on-line sessions over the next few weeks, covering quite a diverse range of subjects.

On the morning of Wednesday 12th May, he’ll be part of the panel talking about the EU’s Ecodesign regulation (and its new post-Brexit UK equivalent) as part of the PLASA Online 2021 event, alongside PLASA’s Peter Heath, Silke Lalvani of Pearle, and Christian Allabauer of OTHG. This will be a great place to learn about where things have ended up with these regulations, how they might affect you as a manufacturer or user of lighting equipment, and what might happen in the future in both the EU and the UK.
[Link]

That afternoon, Rob will be back as the host of a session on the recent production of Romeo & Juliet which combined real performers with virtual scenery and lighting. Rob will be chatting to those responsible for the production - Ryan Metcalfe, who produced it,, created the visuals and edited it all together, designer Jamie Osborne and sound designer Olly Steel.
[Link]
Read about the production here: [link]

Two weeks later, on Tuesday May 25th, Rob will be back as part of the ‘Virtual Showlight’ day, which sees the wonderful Showlight event move online for the year. Rob will be teaming up with Ken Billington and Aaron Porter to talk about their work lighting the musical Waitress in Japan - without leaving home!
[Link]
Waitress Japan: [link]

Both PLASA Online 2021 and Virtual Showlight 21 are free to attend and contain many fascinating sessions. Sign up today!

One Thought Out Of Three Hundred

Rob is delighted to be part of theatre maker Russell Lucas’ 300 Thoughts for Theatremakers on-line series of discussions - which can be found here.

The full range of talks take in every aspect of theatre making, each conversation with a fascinating person - quite the company to be amongst!

Rob’s talk was about lighting in a world after both Brexit and Covid. In many ways, it continued, updated and expanded on the session Russell organised and Rob led about the effect the EU’s lighting regulations would have on smaller theatres back in 2018. Here Rob talked about the final version of the EU lighting regulations and how entertainment lighting had won many of the concessions it required - but how many of those concessions are likely to be rendered irrelevant as manufacturers discontinue specialist theatre light bulbs through lack of demand. He also talks about how the work on this regulation had fuelled a discussion about a need for an organisation representing every part of the entertainment industry in discussions with Government - something that had was ultimately not put into practice, but which would have been invaluable in the Covid emergency.

Rob and Russell’s conversation can he found here: [link]

A trailer for the whole series can be found here: [link]

Sitting In The Co-Pilot’s Chair - Available Online Now

Rob’s on-line presentation for Martin Professional, Sitting In The Co-Pilot’s Chair, looking at the work of the Lighting Programmer and their relationship with the Lighting Designer, is available to view on-line now for those who missed it live.

The presentation seems to have been enjoyed by those who watched it, many sticking around to ask interesting questions at the end…

Rob is now working on a follow-up presentation, which will appear sometime in January. Stay tuned for more information.

Sitting In The Co-Pilot’s Chair: [link]
Other Upcoming Martin Webinars: [link]

Backstage Online - ABTT Theatre Show

In an alternate reality, the annual ABTT Theatre Show would have been taking place today and tomorrow (June 10th and 11th).

In this reality, the show has moved on-line, with a series of Webinars covering a full range of backstage subjects.

Rob will be part of the Association of Lighting Designers panel on the Future of Lighting, looking at the changes and challenges involved in using LED technology, this morning, June 10th, from 10am.

See you there?

ABTT Panels: [link]

Lighting, The Fringe and the EU

Rob will be part of a free event discussing the future of entertainment lighting generally, and particularly with regard to the EU’s lighting regulations, for those working in fringe and smaller scale theatres.

The workshop, to be held on November 21st, has been organised by theatremaker Russell Lucas, who noticed that no-one from these smaller scale theatres had attended the events on the subject that the Association of Lighting Designers had organised at the National Theatre, despite the potential that the new rules would dramatically impact their ability to keep using their existing lighting equipment.

Rob’s involvement stems from his work with the ALD and the larger entertainment lighting community in trying to understand the impact of these new Ecodesign regulations, and in then working with the EU helping them to understand the issues their rules could have on entertainment lighting and the revisions required to make their effect less damaging.

While these changes have largely been achieved for this round of the regulations, the workshop will look at what is likely to happen as the EU work on the next version of these regulations over the next five years, when it seems they will become much stricter over what kinds of lighting equipment can be used and what can’t. The workshop aims to encourage theatres to start planning - and saving up! - for the changes they will have to make now, rather than waiting for five years then realising they’ve run out of time.

The workshop will take place at the Camden People’s Theatre in London NW1 on Wednesday November 21st from 11am-1pm. The number of places available is limited: book now!

Further information & booking: [link]
Further information about the EU and Entertainment Lighting from the ALD: [link]

ITEAC 2018

Rob will be part of this year’s International Theatre Engineering & Architecture Conference (ITEAC), which takes place this week at IET: Savoy Place in London. 

Held every four years, this year’s event is sub-titled ‘Places for Performance: New Directions,’ and promises to explore the new ways in which performance spaces are developing, learning from the lessons of the previous four years and considering the challenges of the next, particularly in the context of what the creators of performance will require of the spaces in which they work, and to which they invite their audiences.

Rob is part of, and has helped organise, a panel called ‘Bursting the Bubble: LED, Regulation and the Future of Lighting’. This takes a look at what venue planners need to consider moving forward, as technology advances, and as control of the equipment used for stage lighting gets taken out of the control of its practitioners whether by legislation or just the decision by manufacturers to stop producing some of the devices we love, particularly tungsten light bulbs.

Alongside Rob will be a team of top theatre practitioners, including lighting designer Lucy Carter, the National Theatre’s head of lighting, Matt Drury, Simone Capeleto of ADB, and Steve Terry of ETC.

The session takes place this Tuesday, June 5th, at 11.30am.

ITEAC: [link]