Sola Series lit up Zuni’s performance in Hong Kong

No matter you are an actor, an audience member, or backstage crew, participating in performing arts is an inspiring journey where you experience creativity and cultural exchange through the appreciation of arts. Zuni Icosahedron conducted a series of spectacular performances in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre to promote art and culture in the region. High End Systems from ETC is happy to be part of this meaningful experience where SolaFrame 1000 and Hog 4 console are used in the lighting design.

Established in Hong Kong in 1982, Zuni Icosahedron is one of the professional art organizations dedicated to exploring the infinite possibilities and interaction of multimedia technology with art and theatre through subversive performance. Zuni is well known for its premiere experimental theatre; they have been invited to perform in 80 cities around the world.

To promote art and culture in the region, Zuni initiated a series of fascinating performances in 2020 including Piano Solo Storytelling - Spirits,Hong Kong Song Book Series - Gayamyan Romantic HK the 80s Concert, Read Sing Eileen Chang, and Bach is Heart Sutra, under the artistic direction, directed and stage designed by Mathias Woo, the cross-disciplinary multimedia theatre creator. All were held in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. The Centre is an iconic curved and concave shape building located by the harbor-front of Tsim Sha Tsui, and it is one of the city landmarks for a wide array of cultural performances.

C'est Bon Projects Corporation Limited, one of ETC’s dealers for the Hong Kong market, provided technical support to the above performance.

Piano Solo Storytelling - Spirits, a literary and music program that combines piano solo, monologues, poems, lights, and shadow to re-enact the stories of spirits and love through classical music. The audience is amazed by both the theatrical narrator Sylvia Chang - the renowned playwright/ director/ actress, and the live-stream piano performance by Yen Chun-chieh, the award-winning pianist in Taiwan.

Mak Kwok Fai, the lighting designer of this performance, explains how SolaFrame 1000 works well from rehearsal to showtimes, "The amount of fan noise can be highly sensitive because this production reproduces the live music by the pianist at Taipei via streaming. SolaFrame 1000 works silently. Audiences were impressed by the music with zero disturbance.” Fai is also the director of C’est Bon.

Efficient programming capabilities of Hog4 was another plus. Rehearsal times are tight as they required Sylvia and Chun-chieh to work simultaneously between the two cities. The highly sensible and fine-tuning capabilities on the fixtures helped adjust the lighting effects precisely and saved a lot of time.

Hong Kong Song Book Series -Gayamyan Romantic HK the 80s Concert is another performance created by Zuni. It is a concert paying tribute to Danny Chan, a Hong Kong pop music icon in the 80s, that takes the audience down memory lane with nostalgic Hong Kong romance through a Hong Kong band - Gayamyan’s modern interpretation.

Lighting designer, Fai was happy with the excellent features of SolaFrame 1000, a high brightness of 20,000 lumen output, and the redesigned CMY and CTO color mixing system. It’s accurate, full framing shutters create very fine lines that provide clean-cut light. The continuously rotating variable animation wheel stimulates the movement of a moving metro train, creates stunning images and intensifies emotions in the performance.

Read Sing Eileen Chang, is a performance that celebrates the 100th anniversary of the birth of Eileen Chang. Chang is a legendary female writer who significantly impacted the history of Chinese literature. This performance is one of the Z Innovation Lab’s initiatives, a performing art program launched by Zuni aimed to explore creativity in the industry via the combination of technology on the stage. Z Innovation Lab is also the winner of the Red Dot Award in 2020.

This performance combines the singing and storytelling of Chang’s works with technology. It engrossed the audience with Chang’s works, exciting music, and stunning lighting effects using images and LED projections.

Bach is Heart Sutrais another program presented by Z Innovation Lab. It is an “Art + Tech” installation built with a mirrored space. The audience can experience the peace of mindfulness through writing Heart Sutra while listening to the music of Bach's Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello, while interacting with the innovative theatre technologies and dazzling audio-visual design that uses light and LED projection.

Adonic Lo is the lighting designer of Read Sing Eileen Chang and Bach is Heart Sutra. “The full framing shutter of SolaFrame 1000 was a great help because the shape of the acting area kept changing. The fast-moving feature also impressed me. It moves smoothly and could be finely adjusted while I worked on different movement effects,” commented Adonic.

High End Systems’ fixtures not only create moods and enhance the visual quality of a performance, but they are a vital part of the art and cultural development in society. We look forward to being part of the next performing art programs in the coming future.

Click here to learn more about Zuni Icosahedron and their next program.

Click here to learn more about C’est Bon Projects Corporation Limited.

Photo credits: Zuni Icosahedron