Ayrton Diablo takes to the nunnery for Centre Stage London’s Sister Act
Centre Stage London’s production of Sister Act at the John McIntosh Arts Centre is the latest large-scale musical produced to a high professional standard by this non-professional theatre group. Lighting designer, Ben Sassoon, has lit many of them, but this is his first time using Ayrton Diablo fixtures,whichhespecifiedafterseeing lighting designer, David Howe’s, use of them on the West End production of A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong. This is also his first time working with Sparks Theatrical Hire which supplied nine of thecompactAyrtonunitsastheshow’s workhorse fixtures.
Sister Act is set in the 1970s, this gives the lighting designer plenty of scope to play with the juxtaposition between dingy environments within a penniless nunnery and the colourful fantasy world of disco. “I needed a fixture that was versatile enough to do all these things, but I didn't have a lot of space or weight available to me,” says Sassoon. “The show has a lot of flying pieces, and the weight allowance on the bars was really quite tight, so I needed something that was small, lightweight, but still punchy.
“The theatre’s trim height is relatively low at 6.5m, so the fixture needed to have a really big zoom too. So, when youneed something small, lightweight, bright and punchy with a big zoom, I think there's really only one choice, which is Diablo. These things are amazing. You can literally carry them with one hand!” Sassoon rigged seven Diablo over stage for back and high side light, keeping them close together to counter the lack of space, and two front of house for specials and general washes, and for ‘pulling out bits of scenery’.
Paul Anderson, managing director of Sparks Theatrical Hire, comments: “We invested in Ayrton’s Diablos just as we were emerging from COVID, and they have proved to be very popular ever since. Their compact size is a big factor in their appeal with many of our clients, and what they pack into such a compact unit is staggering.” Despite their small footprint, the Diablo fixtures deliver an extensive feature set including CMY colour mixing, a colour wheel, iris, shutters, seven rotating gobos, animation wheel, plus an exceptionally impressive zoom range.
“I don’t know how they fit everything into such a small unit,” added Anderson “We are always topping up our Diablo stock levels, as we never quite seem to have enough.
Ben Sassoon was aided by associate lighting designer, Paul Evans, and production electrician, Robbie Bradshaw.
Photos © Ben Sassoon
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