Strand Lighting has announced the appointment of Mauricio Guzmán as regional sales manager for Latin America. A native of Chile, and a graduate of the University of Chile in Santiago, Guzmán worked at Strand from 1995 to 2000 as a project manager, and most recently served as market director for Latin American business at Lee Filters. A 25-year veteran of the lighting industry, Guzmán worked as a design engineer for Colortran (1987-1995) and at JK Design Group in 2000. At Strand, he replaces Sergio Alvarado, who has moved to ELS as sales manager. “When Sergio left Strand, I called Mauricio and told him we had the perfect position for him,” says Peter Rogers, Strand's global sales and marketing director. “He is now in charge of sales from Mexico to the South Pole.” While Guzmán has a lot of irons in the fire for new projects, Strand recently completed Studio I and Studio J for TV-Globo in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, supplying 12 CD80 Supervisor dimmer racks (with over 700 dimmers, including dual 2.4kW, single 6.0kW, and 12kW modules) and two 300 Series consoles with full accessories, as well as a variety of luminaires. Another south-of-the-border project recently completed by Strand is the new 1,200-sq.-m (13,300 sq. ft.) News Center Studio for Televisa in Mexico City, where they supplied five CD80SV dimmer racks (480 dual 2.4kW dimmers), two 550i consoles, and 240 fixtures including Studio fresnels, Bambino fresnels, and Codas. “Going back to Strand is like going back to a house where you know all the people and feel very comfortable,” says Guzmán, who began his new job on March 3, 2003. In other world news, Strand has also recently completed the lighting systems for the studios at Media City in Cairo, Egypt, and is installing a new lighting system during the current renovation of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia, which now also has 35 Digital Light Curtains from DHA, via DHA's German regional sales manager, Rainer Weggen.
UK lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe was honored with a lifetime achievement award when the Opus German Stage Prizes were presented at ProLight+Sound in Frankfurt on March 5, 2003. LD for everyone from Tina Turner to the Rolling Stones, Woodroffe also designs industrial and architectural projects, as was recently seen in Las Vegas where he is reportedly designing architectural lighting for Steve Wynn's new hotel, Le Reve. A second Opus lighting award was presented to German LD Manfred Voss, who has worked extensively at Theatre Bremen as well as the State Opera House in Hamburg, and at the Bayreuth Festival, where he lit Patrice Chéreau's now legendary Ring cycle.
The Kammerspiele in Munich is a little jewel box of a theatre whose decorative ceiling is on the historic register and can not be tampered with or marred by front-of-house lighting equipment. When the theatre recently reopened after being closed for seven years, resident LD Max Keller solved this problem by adding five Fantôme luminaires, developed by UK-based Wynne Willson Gottelier. The fixture combines a fully automated version of Robert Juliat's d'Artagnan 2.5kW HMI zoom profile spotlight and WWG's patented orbital double mirror head (now manufactured by High End Systems), remote automation of zoom, focus, and iris, plus WWG's new flexible, full-framing system. An automated mechanical fader and gel scroller, both by Licht Technik, were incorporated at the specific request of Keller. The Fantôme, originally developed for the Royal Opera House in London under the aegis of Mark White when he was the lighting consultant there, can be installed so that only the heads are visible through the ceiling and not disturb the architectural integrity of historic opera houses and theatres. Like all good phantoms of the opera, this fixture is definitely there but not seen except by those in the know. Peter Wynne Willson reports that there has been additional interest in the Fantôme from opera houses in Amsterdam and Paris.
The Compulite — Danor Museum, located in the industrial zone of Hod Hasharon, Israel, now houses “The Museum of Stage Lighting: The Power of Light,” an installation that tells the story of lighting from the candle through sophisticated modern moving lights, and how technological progress dramatically influenced the development of theatre, particularly during the last century. The mastermind behind the museum is stage lighting designer Dan Redler, who wrote the book Stage Lighting, and Stage Lighting: The CD-ROM. The museum was created for theatre professionals and visual artists, as well as art and theatre students, and theatregoers. The museum begins with the Renaissance and culminates in contemporary times, presenting different methods used to light the stage, with an interesting collection of authentic artifacts from the last century and reconstructed models of historical items. It also presents demonstrations of how controlling the intensity, color, direction, distribution, and movement of light contributes to the rendering and design of stage space and theatrical performance. Funded by Danor and Compulite, the museum's exhibits have been assembled from collections all over the world. Redler worked with BenZion Munitz, scientific advisor, and Eitan Levi, designer, on the creation of the museum, the only one of its kind worldwide.
Wayne Howell of Artistic Licence UK is using the new control protocol RDM (rather than DMX) for a color-changing LED installation at Finnsbury Avenue Square (near the Liverpool Street Station) in Broadgate in the City of London. Linear LED fixtures will be installed under a .75km walkway of black granite with squares of smoked glass to reveal the light. “The installation is intended to last at least 10 years, and is engineered to be watertight, with special controls to detect moisture,” notes Howell. “There is also automated maintenance to tell the engineers where to go to look for a problem. This will help keep up the look of the project over a long time period.”
Just one year after the Center for New Theater at Cal Arts presented its all-female experimental version of King Lear, with lighting by Chris Akerlind, at the Brewery Arts Complex in downtown Los Angeles, the production will be seen in Dijon, France, from May 27 through June 3, 2003, as part of the Frictions 2003 Festival.