Angus Cha weaves his magic with Ayrton fixtures for Cambridge European Theatre Group’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Cambridge University European Theatre Group has been touring Western Europe with the next generation of actors, directors, designers and technicians since 1957. Derek Jacobi and Trevor Nunn were amongst the inaugural company members that first toured Romeo & Juliet to the continent, and the tradition of touring a Shakespeare production every December has been maintained ever since.
The European Theatre Group (CUETG) prides itself on its status as a self-sufficient student-run company that juxtaposes professional equipment with experimental sets. The latest Christmas tour, directed by Pauline Eller, took A Midsummer Night’s Dream to six European venues in just 14 days, with venues varying hugely in size from the compact auditorium of De Koelisse, Leuven to a full 350-seat Wilhelma Theatre in Stuttgart.
Lighting designer and programmer, Angus Cha, and production electrician, Chris Wordsworth toured with 6 Ayrton Rivale Profiles and 4 Ayrton Zonda 3 Wash fixtures as their critical workhorse fixtures, rigged in the overstage truss and on side ladders and complimented only by available fixtures at each venue for general cover.
“No day on tour is the same or predictable,” says Cha. “Some days have only one evening performance, but others require a load in, programming and tech, two performances and a load out all in one day! Having reliable, powerful and flexible fixtures was therefore imperative to allow us to keep a consistent vision and look across the whole tour, especially with the range of unpredictable rigging positions, stage sizes and plotting time.”
With a central plot that revolves around a magical forest and an Athenian palace, and involves a medley of meetings between lovers and the interference of fairies, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a show that gives lighting designers so much to work with, claims Cha as he explains why he chose Rivale and Zonda for the tour.
“Given the limitations that arise with a set that needs to be portable and easily rigged, we chose to use tall menacing clothed pillars as an imposing, powerful symbol of Theseus which simultaneously served as trees and barriers for the fairies and lovers to dance around and interact with. To enrich the visuals, we embedded small pixel fairy lights into the ‘trees’, allowing us to light up segments and run chases through them in reaction to the spells and dynamics that evolve throughout the play.
“We needed these custom-built practicals to be accentuated by powerful, punchy fixtures – which is where the Rivale Profiles came in – while the white canvas provided the perfect surface for layering gobos and animation.
“As a handful moments of particular tension required a combination of movement and texture, Rivale’s ability to remain visible and clear whilst layering colour, a gobo, prism and animation wheel were crucial to the design, and meant we could achieve the desired effect with only one or two fixtures. For moments when flowers were used to anoint the Lovers’ eyes, being able to use Rivale’s two gobo wheels and morph between them added that extra bit of detail that helped create a truly magical visual experience.
“Given the differing requirements at each venue, the Rivales would occasionally be used as facelight, at which point the CTP/CTO flags and the great shuttering performance were genuinely amazing. I’m a huge fan of the Rivales, and the amount they can achieve in their form factor is genuinely impressive.”
Cha was similarly positive about the performance of the Zonda 3 Wash fixtures: “The Zonda 3 Washes were surprisingly bright, and we had no problem with flooding large stages with just a handful of them. They are also incredibly fast fixtures, which enabled some great snap pan/tilt cues (such as when Bottom transforms into an ass) to be really reactive!”
To round off the tour, CUETG performed for a week at the ADC Theatre, its resident theatre in Cambridge. “This allowed us to finesse the design still further and enjoy some extended tech time combined with our two weeks of experience on tour,” concludes Cha.
“The Rivale Profiles and Zonda 3s proved perfect for a tour like this. Given the small size of our Company, the weight and size of the fixtures and small details like the pop-out handles made working with them so much easier. This, along with their robustness and ease of rigging was very much appreciated.”
The Rivale Profile and Zonda 3 Wash fixtures were sponsored by Ayrton and its exclusive distributor for the UK, Ambersphere Solutions, working in close collaboration with CUETG’s production manager, Emma Chandler who was responsible for overseeing the logistics, load ins and load outs at each venue.
Full production team:
Tour Manager – Gemma Stapleton, Katie Stapleton
Director – Pauline Eller
Production Manager – Emma Chandler
Assistant Director – Eloise Davis
Associate Director – Lily Ellis
Education Officer – Lily Ellis
Lighting Designer – Angus Cha
Chief Electrician – Chris Wordsworth
Stage Manager – Xingbei Lin
Home Contact – Holly Varndell
Costume Designer – Sophie Campbell
Composer – Matt Williams
Photographer – Evan Richards
Sound Designer – Becky Cain-Renshaw
Company Manager – Lucy Twittey
Technician – Nandinee Thatte, Anaïs Pettecrew, Anna Langdon, Wilf Jenkinson
Costume Assistant – Jen Weston
Lighting Delivery Crew – Declan Boyd, Nadia Hussein, Nandinee Thatte, Eva Cotton, Stanley Alice Hunt
Choreographer – Anna Sanderson
Carpenter – Zoe C Edwards
Videographer – Paul Ashley
Credits:
Text: Julie Harper
Photos: © Evan Richards
