Award-winning English jazz and soul singer-songwriter Joss Stone visited Namibia for the first time as part of her ongoing Total world tour, appearing at the Warehouse Theatre in Windhoek, Namibia
LD Ramon le Roux of A&R Technologies was in charge of lighting, augmenting the house rig with Robe moving lights; supplied by Windhoek based rental company dB Audio. The veteran LD specified 12 Robe Spiiders for the main wash fixtures, and a further 7 Robe 600E Spots for the hard edged luminaires, all rigged on the house trusses.
For front generic lighting, le Roux utilised 3 Robe 25-50 profiles and a couple of Robe 2K fresnels gelled in CTB, which easily covered the space, together with a dozen of the theatre’s LED and conventional Robe PARs. For atmospherics, they also hung a collection of dimmable lightbulbs at varying heights in the roof above the stage.
le Roux received a brief from Joss Stone’s production team which included keeping it simple and straightforward. “The challenge was to produce subtle, fluid and well balanced lighting harmonious with the spirit and vibe of the show,” he explained. He positioned the Spiiders where they would add most to the overall size, depth and feel of the stage. He thought it was important to do this with them due to “their versatility and the fact that they are loaded with ‘specials’ potential.” There were 4 on the back truss, 1 on each of 2 side trusses – left and right – 4 on the deck in an arc around the upstage, with the other 2 at eye-level on ground-based trusses also at the back.
le Roux said that using Robe Spiiders allowed him achieve his creative goals. “I had to be very deliberate with all of the cues, and the adaptability of the Spiiders and the transitions between the different lighting styles was virtually seamless.” He also liked that fact that the units themselves are very aesthetically pleasing. “I could almost use them as set pieces emulating little coloured orbs or clocks at low intensities.”
He operated the lights using an MA Lighting grandMA dot2 console and regularly uses Robe in his work. He described Robe’s products as “reliable and innovative products. I think the brand is in a great place right now and moving forward with each product release which address the needs and wants of LDs and systems techs.”
