The National Theatre’s River Stage is an annual free festival that runs throughout the summer on London’s South Bank. Featuring leading arts and performance companies, the festival celebrates the best of British and International culture, drag artists and London’s green and blue spaces, including the River Thames. For this year’s season, the River Stage has benefitted from unique dynamic lighting effects thanks to Martin’s new MAC Allure Profile lighting fixtures.
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Photo credit: Stephanie Claire
Paul Hornsby, Lighting Resources Manager at the National Theatre explains, “When I saw the MAC Allure launched back at LDI, I was really impressed that such a small and lightweight unit could produce so many exciting opportunities for lighting music and events. When we knew our River Stage was coming back for another exciting season this summer – I knew they had to feature in our stage lighting rig somehow.’
The Martin MAC Allure Profile features a novel RGBW light engine with unique segmented beam control, allowing dynamic projection and mid-air effects previously not possible. The light & colour engine is divided into seven full colour pixels with pixels able to focus on projection or in the beam for aerial effects.
“The creative options they gave my team, led by Lighting Designer Huw Llewellyn meant they could cover all the different events over the 5 weekends of the River Stage with ease and look very impressive for the audiences.” Paul continues. “I love the multiple split colours that feature in the beam and give the unit a distinctive look on the stage. When they light the haze above the audience it looks quite magical and alive!”
Huw Llewellyn,Lighting Resources Supervisor and Lighting Designer for the River Stage, is equally impressed by the unique effects the MAC Allure can create. “We have 12 on the River Stage this year. With a good zoom, essential when the rig is at 3 metres, and the unique effects that the Allure has built-in, it gives the stage a look we have not been able to achieve in previous years.“
Photo credit: Stephanie Claire
Whilst the National Theatre are using the MAC Allure’s via DMX, the MAC Allure is also the first lighting fixture to incorporate Martin's P3 protocol control. This allows a rig of multiple fixtures to deliver cohesive content that blends with video content on panels or creative LED products.
Huw Llewellyn concludes, “Bright enough for gobos to register in haze on a sunny day, and versatile enough to cope with everything from a crazy Pride disco to contemporary dance and moody spoken word, the MAC Allures have excelled at the National Theatre’s River Stage 2019.”
River Stage 2019 runs until 4th August with the full schedule available at the National Theatre website.
Martin by HARMAN is exclusively distributed in the UK by Sound Technology Ltd. For further information please call 01462 480000 and visit www.soundtech.co.uk/martinpro
About the National Theatre
The National Theatre’s mission is to make world class theatre that’s entertaining, challenging and inspiring – and to make it for everyone. It aims to reach the widest possible audience and to be as inclusive, diverse and national as possible with a broad range of productions that play in London, on tour around the UK, on Broadway and across the globe. The National Theatre's extensive UK-wide learning and participation programme supports young people’s creative education through performance and writing programmes like Connections, New Views and Let’s Play. Its major new initiative Public Acts creates extraordinary acts of theatre and community; the first Public Acts production was 2018’s Pericles. The National Theatre extends its reach through digital programmes including NT Live, which broadcasts some of the best of British theatre to over 2,500 venues in 65 countries, and the free streaming service On Demand In Schools, used by nearly 60% of UK state secondary schools. The National Theatre invests in the future of theatre by developing talent, creating bold new work and building audiences, partnering with a range of UK theatres and theatre companies.
For more information, please visit https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/.
