When the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra joined forces with Manchester Imperial War Museum North to tell the true story of world war one solider Arthur Burke, the BBCs Special projects manager called upon our lighting designer Christopher Bogg to assist.
The collaborative project composed by Richard Taylor and with book written and directed by Di Sherlock was performed within the war museums main gallery space in traverse which brought a unique set of challenges. The project also featured video content across all of the walls behind the audience of original footage from the archives designed by Soup Collectives Mark Thomas.
Christopher explains “although the space was equipped with some theatrical lighting, much of this was in use for the museums main exhibition, still open during the day times. We where able to use carefully selected fixtures from the in house lighting rig augmented with dBS Solutions lighting equipment” Equipment ranged from ETC source four profiles, to Robe 300 spot fixtures and wireless DMX by Wireless solutions. The museums opening meant that there where very tight turn around times between the museum closing and our performances beginning. Much of the lighting system designed was done so in such a way that it could remain in place during the day times connected together with wireless control systems keeping turn arounds to a minimum. Much of the rigging, focusing and programming happened through the night.
The event was a huge success with attendance from many world war one connections including the relatives of Arthur, the stories main character among other veterans. The performance was also filmed by the BBC and broadcast on BBC Radio Manchester.
Thanks goes to all our dBS Solutions crew on the show, Danny Burrows, Martin Winton and Christopher Bogg. Also to those at the BBC and IWMN for their invaluable help, Laura Willson and Ric Douglas