grandMA lighting consoles continue to make their mark in the UK theatre world, with a grandMA touring on the new version of the hugely popular musical “We Will Rock You”. The show, written by UK comedian Ben Elton in collaboration with Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor features 24 of rock legends Queen’s greatest hits, and the tour is produced by Phil McIntyre Entertainment.
WWRY’s Lighting Designer and Video Director is Willie Williams. The console was specified and programmed for the tour by Dave Sadler and is being operated on the road by chief LX Simon Sherriff. The lighting was initially programmed at Three Mills Studios, London ahead of the first UK date at the Manchester Palace Theatre by Sadler and Associate Lighting Designer Richard Pacholski using the new grandMA 3D visualiser.
The show is a full on rock-tastic extravaganza of colour, light movement and visual energy.
It utilizes over 60 moving lights – a combination of Vari*Lite 500s, Martin Professional fixtures and Digital Light Curtains, plus a large generic and LED rig including Rainbow colour scrollers and Atomic strobes. The grandMA is also triggering two Hippotizer media servers running video, and additionally controlling numerous set practicals and other lighting effects embedded into some of the costumes. In total, this all amounts to 6 DMX universes.
The grandMA – complete with a grandMA light running as a tracking backup – 3 x MA NSPs, along with all the lighting kit, is being supplied by London-based White Light. The majority of the rig is rigged over the stage and on the FOH bars, with 8 x VL500s onstage and 2 x MACs on the circle front. With more than 350 cues in the show, it’s a busy one!
“I specified grandMA as it’s the strongest control platform around at the moment, it’s ideal for this type of show and it does everything I need – very quickly,” states Sadler. During the programming he used the Modulators heavily, effects which are based on the parameters of single channels or fixtures, and stored and edited similar to any other values in the channel.
The media servers are running an LED video wall and are fired off a separate Cue List on the desk, in turn triggered by the main Cue List via a mix of manual and timecoded executions.
Sadler has been using grandMA for the last three years for all his shows and it’s currently his console of choice. Simon Sherriff is also a grandMA fan, and before this tour was using one on the Disney Theatrical UK tour of Mary Poppins which was his first experience with the desk.
“It’s packed with features and functions and I found it really easy to learn when I first started,” explains Sherriff. He also likes the screen layouts and the adaptability. “It’s a totally flexible and reliable system – I have never had to call on technical support – and the software is absolutely spot-on,” he comments, adding that the software updates were user-friendly and easy to install.
Photos: Copyright – Queen Theatrical productions Ltd. / Photographer – Ralph Brinkhoff
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