Keeping pace with recording artist, Karen Zoid, during her recent show at the Spier Amphitheatre was a JP Willson-designed lightshow, which featured Chauvet Professional Rogue R2 Wash fixtures.
“A Karen Zoid concert covers a wide range of emotions and musical moods,” said Willson, owner of Unfazed Productions, which supplied the gear for the outdoor show produced by Charl van Heyningen of CVH Enterprises. “The setting here in Stellenbosch is very evocative, with a river running next to the amphitheatre and the mountains in the background. It’s perfect for a South African summer, which is of course winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Our goal was to accent the surroundings and reflect the spirit of the music, which the Rogues helped us do with their deeply saturated colour washes.”
Willson used 11 Chauvet Professional Rogue R2 Wash fixtures in his Karen Zoid rig; flying 5 of them across upstage truss for down washing and arranging 6 on the deck for aerial wash effects. “Projecting washes in the air on a warm evening set a very evocative mood,” he said. “The output of the Rogues meant we had no trouble having the aerial washes stand out, even in a good-sized venue.”
The Chauvet Professional Rogue R2 Wash’s wide zoom range of 12° to 49° helped Willson change the look on stage. At times, he focused all 5 overhead washes tightly on Zoid as she performed in the middle of the stage. At other points, he opted for a more diffuse wash. Colour washing was also provided by 12 Chauvet DJ SlimPAR 64 RGB fixtures.
Adding to Willson’s lightshow were 10 Chauvet DJ Intimidator Hybrid 140SR spot/beam fixtures, 4 of which he flew with the Rogue units, while arranging the remainder on the stage deck in an arc behind the band. Drawing on the Intimidator fixture’s dual gobo wheels, Willson endowed the stage with a greater sense of depth by creating aerial projections.
