Famous and Forgotten

Poster: Kirkham Grammar School

When my brother Reuben let me know that his school, Kirkham Grammar, were putting on a performance for the first time in a few years, I got in touch to offer technical assistance. Working to a limited budget and wanting to reboot support for larger shows in the future, their drama department had made the canny decision to stage *Famous and Forgotten *(by Andrew Colley with music by Fiona Ross). Based on the true story of the Dick, Kerr Ladies’ Football Team, a group of women from Preston who contributed so much to the WWI war effort through fundraising for injured soldiers, the play had both local appeal and a link to the First World War Centenary.

On an initial visit to the school, I found out as much as I could about the performance space and the set. The dimmer packs were still in reasonable condition (complete with an incomplete circuit/patch diagram), as was the single DMX link to the back of the auditorium. I also had a sort through their stock of lighting fixtures to see what worked (or could be made to do so quickly!).

One of the challenges of this production is that it made little use of the stage, mainly using a large area on the auditorium floor. This meant that the few fixed lighting bars weren’t going to give sufficient coverage for the performance space, and so additional fixtures were hired from Makin Lightin, complete with stands and an Avolites Quartz lighting console.

After analysis of the script, I drew up a lighting plot for the show. Lots of compromises needed to be made due to the severely limited number of fixtures and positions, but I still managed to achieve decent coverage with distinct zones, along with some specials.

Rigging and focussing was relatively straightforward, although ladder access was a little awkward (a MEWP would have been much more convenient for the rather high battens). Jonathan from Makin programmed the desk for me during the technical rehearsal, and I ended up helping with sound too.

The play was very well received, and paved the way for future productions.

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