Jackie Shemesh chooses Diablo for White Noise at The Bridge Theatre

Written by Pulitzer Prize‐winning playwright Suzan‐Lori Parks, and directed by Polly Findlay at London’s The Bridge Theatre, the European premiere of White Noise explored the subject of race in the 21st century from both a black and white perspective through a group of college friends. Working on an ambitious set design by Lizzie Clachan, lighting designer, Jackie Shemesh, chose six Ayrton Diablo LED profile fixtures to deliver some extremely precise lighting effects and ambient washes, and worked hard to sculpt the huge set despite some difficult rigging angles and ensure the skin tones of the diverse cast looked correct on stage. The 27m‐deep set included a thrust stage, an overhead catwalk, a series of side wall flats arranged in perspective to frame the stage, and an angled ceiling flat which severely restricted hanging positions and lighting angles. Shemesh rigged two Diablo fixtures centrally in low mid‐house positions from the lower gallery where he used them as “good fillers” on the thruststage “or whereverI had a gap or a littlebit of a dark place.”A further pair of Diablo profiles were rigged on the low level gallery in spot positions from where Shemesh was able to wash the side walls with brushes of colour, using stronger colour palettes to recreate a club vibe. The Ayrton Diablo fixtures were supplied by Sparks Theatrical Hire, which has been an early adopter of the fixture. Paul Anderson, the company’s director, was very impressed with the units when they were demonstrated to him at Sparks’ HQ by Ambersphere’s Briony Berning last year.

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Photo © Johan Persson