Joseph Mercurio is Head of Lighting Design and Senior Lecturer at the National Institute of Dramatic Art, where he leads the development of lighting and production training within a contemporary performance context.
He describes the course as a ‘generalist course’ based in stage management, and then lighting, sound, and video. This means constantly juggling how much design you want to teach, how much technology you want to teach, and how many raw skills you want to teach.
“When you’ve got a class of 16, which is our standard class, you’ve got six who really want to be a stage manager, three who want sound, three who want video, and three who want lighting,” he explained. “So, if you go too deep, you lose a lot of people. It isn’t until their third year that the students specialise.”
Joseph’s challenge as a lighting lecturer is to provide the right lighting education and balance depth and breadth, so it is vital he has technology that works.
“It’s got to be all set up ready to go,” he said. “When I first came here nearly three years ago, there was a real mismatch of equipment. We’d have seven different light engines in a room. It was too complicated for students who don’t have a deep understanding of lighting. To understand how to calibrate and balance all those light engines to get the same colour … well, they just weren’t getting it. They wouldn’t have the time.”
Consequently, one of the first things that Joseph instigated was to minimise the number of colour engines in each venue by using mainly one brand/distributor in each venue. This became a major driver of their buying direction.
“Without dumbing down the experience, we’ve taken out the numerous different manufacturers’ technologies and homogenised it,” added Joseph. “So now it’s only two or three, whereas before one room had seven. Having one distributor group in one room makes it much more efficient for us to service the room, keep it running, maintain it, and get advice on it.”
NIDA’s premium and largest venue is the Parade Theatre, which seats up to 707 people in its three-tiered, horseshoe-shaped auditorium. The Parade Theatre is hired out a lot, especially for dance schools and graduations, and the wide variety of users requires a reliable, versatile rig. As a result, Show Technology supplies this busy venue.
NIDA has had a long-standing relationship with Show Technology, including acquiring an MA Lighting grandMA3 Command Wing XT console. NIDA now owns 28 x Prolights EclProfile CT+, 20 x Prolights EclFresnel CT+M, 22 x FusionPAR H XII, 12 x ShowPRO R3 Wash, 6 x Ayrton Diablo S and 2 x Robert Juliat Oz followspots.
“The Prolights gear has been excellent, and it’s useful that the lens barrels accommodate some of our older lenses,” commented Joseph. “The fixtures are reliable and produce plenty of light. In the Parade, where the throw is longer, they perform especially well. Their brightness and lens compatibility let us use them in many positions while still achieving strong results, making them the best fit for the room.”
Joseph and his students adore the Ayrton Diablos, and he wishes he had more. The Diablos’ physicality is an important factor, as most students aren’t physically ready for bigger lights, and the Diablos are manageable for them.
“We need to consider the 18-year-olds, and many of them, which I mentioned earlier, they want to be stage managers or sound people. They’re not necessarily down the gym bulking up. To heft around some bigger fixtures, it’s not going to happen, so the Diablos work really well for that. And they’re fully featured. We’ve got shutters, we’ve got colours, we’ve got gobos, we’ve got rotating gobos. We’ve got all of that. They’re bright enough for our largest venue yet quiet enough for our smallest.”
Joseph notes the ShowPRO FusionPARS have been very popular as a punchy, little workhorse. The ShowPRO R3 Washes were initially located in the Playhouse, but as part of the homogenisation, they were relocated into The Parade, where Joseph says they have been doing a fabulous job.
The Parade Theatre is hired out a lot, especially for dance schools and graduations, and the wide variety of users requires a reliable, versatile rig.
Joseph adds that Show Technology’s backup and service have been excellent, with Vince and Gareth running MA3 training there only a couple of weeks ago.
NIDA are in the process of purchasing some more gear from Show Technology … but more about that later!
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