A Little Night Music for Robe at RADA posted: 22/05/2017
Award winning lighting designer Paul Pyant returned to London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) to light a production of the Steven Sondheim classic, A Little Night Music directed by Edward Kemp and staged at RADA's Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre in central London.
Robe enjoy a close ongoing working relationship with RADA, making their latest technologies available for students to use across the three main venues. Paul's design for this production utilised Robe's DL7S LED profiles and the new Spiider LED wash beam moving lights, together with other moving and conventional fixtures.
Paul's acclaimed career started at RADA - he is a 1973 alumnus of the Academy's technical training course - and features extensive work across the genres of theatre, opera, ballet and dance. It's earned him recognition for lighting a diversity of shows from large-scale West End and Broadway extravaganzas to incisive performances at venues like the National Theatre, Donmar Warehouse and the ENO, to the bleeding edge of independent fringe.
Although this impressive CV has included many Sondheim masterpieces, mainly at the Donmar with director Sam Mendes and The Man Himself, this is the first time A Little Night Music has received his touch, and he was very excited to be able to return to RADA.
Paul collaborated with a student team on this show, all of whom benefitted from his fund of experience and knowledge. The Academy's Head of Production Lighting Matt Leventhall oversaw the process which was one of the most technically ambitious musicals RADA has produced to date.
Designer Jane Heather and Edward Kemp wanted the narrative to feature both projection and lighting in its visual treatment, and the need for the two media to coexist and work fluidly together was a key starting point for Paul's design.
Projection content was created by acclaimed projection artist and video designer Nina Dunn.
Before compiling his fixture lists, Paul visited the Robe factory in the Czech Republic and saw both DL7Ss and Spiiders in action at the demo facility. Once he decided he wanted to use these for the show, Robe assisted in making them available. They were used with a number of house' fixtures in residence at RADA which include Robe LEDWash 800s and 600s, DL4S Profiles and CycBar 15s.
Rigged above the stage, the DL7S Profiles created different areas of lighting and were used to define locations or suggest different spaces in-between two mobile projection screens that were used as walls' and moved around. This allowed action to run simultaneously in different areas and locations.
As the screens were moved , explained Paul, the idea was that the DL7S Profiles could morph' using their very accurate shutters to denote the different areas seamlessly between scene shifts . The fixture's ability to create straight shuttered edges at full zoom was a big asset in achieving this objective. The DL7S Profiles also provided useful gobo work for the more atmospheric scenes in Act 2.
Matt adds that the seven colours of the DL7S can produce accurate temperature and quality matches to the tungsten sources being used. Its excellent dimming, combined with the ETC EOS console's curves, could also replicate this characteristic in tungsten very authentically.
The DL7S Profiles are now part of RADA's moving light stock for use across their venues, and this production was their first show. Matt thinks they are the best LED moving light available on the market right now and is certain they will be used for all shows staged in the Jerwood Vanbrugh from now on.
The four Spiiders came from CEG and created an intense backlight effect together with a bright, highly saturated blue wash onto which the video content was layered.
Matt said they all enjoyed the brightness and the thick beam at minimum zoom and he could see that the flower effect would be impressive in a live music context!
Being a musical, there was plenty of call for saturated colour, an area where most LED luminaires excel, and the six LEDWash 800s and 10 LEDWash 600s all had their fair share of moments'.
The DL4S Profiles were primarily used to augment the gobo looks and to add texturing, using the standard gobo set with the addition of a custom Alpha Ray' gobo.
Paul thinks that LED technology has advanced quickly and that these newer fixtures in particular have been proved to have the best dimming qualities he has seen to date, as well as being reliable, easy to programme and quiet .
Matt's take on the noise issues is that with upwards of 30 Robe LED sources on the rig, the venue was absolutely silent , which is fundamental for theatrical productions.
Having LED luminaires readily available to light shows also saves RADA considerable hassle in not having to constantly re-lamp fixtures, assists in general heat management - as well as empowers students to learn how to maintain the lights and get the most out of them creatively.
Paul's biggest overall challenge on this production was to ensure that the lighting complemented and balanced the projection. Working in the traverse format is always galvanising, as having an audience on three sides and close to the action limits the visual impact of directional lighting. However, the intimacy and sense of involvement this brings is a big boost to the viewer experience.
He also comments that it was a massive project to deliver in a very short space of time, and had he been in a standard outside world' scenario, he would have had to pick his team extremely carefully to achieve results.
As it happened, his core student team dealt brilliantly with the pressure and the circumstances: This was way beyond my expectations! I genuinely wanted for nothing as we achieved so much in a short
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
A Little Night Music for Robe at RADA posted: 22/05/2017 
