ETC lights South African tour of Rent

ETC, through dealer Prosound, has supplied equipment for the South African production of Rent , which opened at the Alexander Theatre in Johannesburg, South Africa, in July, and has now gone on tour across the country. Included in the rig are some 75 ETC Source Four® spotlights -- 10º, 19º, 26º and 36º field angles -- controlled by an ETC Congo™ lighting control console and SmartPack® dimming.

"Although the show has come from Broadway," explains lighting designer Alistair Kilbee, "we wanted a design which was defined by Broadway but not copying it. Source Fours are the standard luminaire for theatrical work, and they let me achieve the look I want - in this case, a stark, minimalist feel. They're the best profile spotlights on the market, and you know what you're getting when you use one."

Alistair added ETC SmartPack dimming to complement the house dimming system in the Alexander- a theater that had been dark for a decade. Although budget was limited, he wanted to make sure that the luminaires, which are most noticed, would get a nice smooth dim.

"This is the first time I've used an ETC Congo," he adds, "and it's been interesting to learn and use - it's worked really well." Although he hasn't needed it, Alistair also has a Congo jr on standby at Prosound's offices as backup, just in case.

Originally performed in 1996 at the New York Theatre Workshop, Rent tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York's Alphabet City in the last days of the Bohemian East Village, under the shadow of AIDS.