Luke is very proud that his lighting design for Zenith Youth Theatre Company’s production of Titanic the musical has been nominated for the Spirolux Ltd Technical Achievement Award at the Rose Bowl Awards. This is one of 7 nominations that Zenith Youth Theatre Company received from the Rose Bowl this year. The winners will be announced at an award ceremony on 20th October.
For a full list of nominees see the Rose Bowl website here:
http://rosebowlawards.org.uk/current-awards/
Here is what Clare Toghill from the Rose Bowl had to say about Luke’s lighting design:
The lighting for this show was outstanding. The vast and complex set piece was clearly divided into two distinctive sections, or rather levels of the ship and these areas were often lit in strikingly contrasting colours and styles to represent various zones of the Titanic’s interior; for example ….. Luke used the white interior wall of the ship as a cyc upon which he threw many shades of light to create some stunning effects. This is a lighting designer who clearly knows his stuff. There were no colour-bleeds, hazy edges or unsightly shadows cast at all; indeed the lighting was sharp, succinct and punchy. The boiler room was simply the lower deck space transformed by way of deep crimson light bouncing off the whitewashed walls. Luke used various gobos and projections to reinforce the visual effect of the ship at sea; there were rusted, metal bars projected onto the actual bars creating a double-layered effect, the name of the ship was also projected as were the sub-headed dates and times of the disaster as it unfolded. Rippling waves were projected onto the sides of the ship under an intense Midnight blue wash at the start of the show. Four internal porthole windows were back-lit. A star curtain enveloped the upper-deck and gave further depth to the set. During the Gentlemen’s card game in the smoking room, more red light was thrown onto the men whilst casting interesting silhouettes of them onto the white lower-deck wall behind them. The upper-deck was lit more simplistically with the light from the star curtain and some softer hues – there was indeed no moon that evening, however the soloists on the top deck performed in their own spotlights. Dramatic shadows cast onto the cyc at the back enhanced the tableaux created by the performers on stage and that is why Luke’s lighting designs always seem to deliver – the action or dialogue on stage is absolutely supported by the atmospheric lighting on stage. The final moments of the show, in the wake of the extremely rousing final song, were the ‘rolling’ names of the deceased from this tragedy and as the names scrolled up on the cyc, the reality of the disaster hit home yet again – this was extraordinarily powerful. Huge congratulations to this department for their input here and for contributing so perfectly to the overall success of this show.
Here is the feedback from the NODA report on the show:
“The lighting throughout the show was excellent, with a good mix of subtle and sudden changes to the light levels and very effective use of spotlights. The projections used were very good and fitted very well with the spirit of the production.”
Photograph by Nick Spratling.
