Aldwych Theatre (July 1, 1998 – January 6, 2001) Premiere run
From Lighting & Sound International, Issue 153 (September 1998)
The new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, Whistle Down The Wind, opened on 1st July at the Aldwych Theatre.
Having been awarded the contract in April, Theatre Projects supplied both a Vari*Lite automated lighting rig including 10 VL6 spot luminaires and 16 VL5 Arc wash luminaires and a conventional rig consisting of over 300 ETC Source Four Profiles and six Robert Juliat 2.5kW HMI Profiles. Special lighting effects are provided by 120 Rainbow colour scrollers, 20 DHA double gobo rotators and various strobe units.
The conventional are controlled via the house desk, a Strand Light Palette 90, and the Vari*Lite automated lighting is controlled via a mini Artisan2 console. The lighting designer was Mark McCullough.
Due to the conventional set, which required the up-stage crossover bridge and some of the counterweight sets to be removed in order to get it in, the lighting positions are less conventional than most productions. Assistant lighting designer Fraser Hall explains: “The nature of the set did make positioning fairly difficult. Not only did we have the vast freeway to contend with, which created a roof to most scenes eliminating the overhead rig for at least two thirds of the show, but also a BP screen up-stage and mirrored walls on both sides. This only left us two slots down stage each side and a small amount of flying space USR. This meant that we had to create positions using the front-of-house boxes in order to get light into the set, both at high and low level. Overhead we used a Vari*Lite-led rig because again, access for focusing conventional lights was difficult and here the Vari*Lite luminaires came into their own.”
Palace Theatre (March 2006 – August 2006) Revival
Produced & Directed by Bill Kenwright
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG6pW_x8Z70