Robe T1 luminaires for Johannesburg’s Market Theatre

Located right downtown in the lively Newtown area of South Africa’s bustling commercial epicentre, Johannesburg’s multi award winning Market Theatre continues to offer innovative new works, a forum for free‐thinking and stands out as one of the most significant and critically acclaimed drama and live performance venues in the southern hemisphere.

This year, the Market Theatre took delivery of 50 x Robe T1 series LED moving lights as part of an upgrade initiative emanating from SA’s Department of Arts & Culture which is looking to the future and boosting suitability across the arts.

These new Robe luminaires will be used across the venue’s three main performance spaces – the John Kani, Barney Simon, and Mannie Manim.

Robe T1 Profile

The T1s were a major part of a package delivered by Robe’s Southern Africa distributor DWR after winning a competitive tender to supply the venue’s new theatrical/ stage lighting elements.

The tender was written and specified by renowned SA lighting designer Denis Hutchinson, brought onboard as project consultant by the Market Theatre’s then head of lighting and now head of stage services, Nomvula Molepo. Denis and the Market Theatre technical team were then left alone to further examine all the auditioning luminaires for themselves. Between them, they independently rated each different fixture across multiple categories, all tying in with the government’s tender procedure, which narrowed it down to six or seven fixtures. These results were then presented to the relevant evaluation committee, together with recommendations on the best choices to meet the theatre’s requirements.