Situated in Grove House Gardens in South Bedfordshire, England, the Grove Theatre, Dunstable forms part of the Grove Park Complex; the single biggest leisure development undertaken in South Bedfordshire in the last 40 years.
At a cost of £16m the Grove Theatre features a striking glass frontage which leads into an open and airy foyer, boasting spectacular views over the neighboring park from the first floor and was officially opened on April 21, 2007 with a gala performance hosted by Brian Blessed.
The curved auditorium seats 780 people on two levels in stalls, circle, and box-style seating with the option of retractable stalls seating offering a flat, floor space increasing the capacity to 1,000.
After the infrastructure was installed by Northern Light, AC Lighting won the supply of loose equipment to include 48 Selecon Rama High Performance Fresnels, 5 Aurora 4-way Cycs, and 2 Performer Series Toru Followspots. Originally Performer Series Rua 9º -16º Followspots were specified for the venue after consultant Roger Fox saw them at ABTT 2006; however with the release of the third model in the series it was considered that this version, the Toru was even more suitable for the theatre. Following an onsite trial this proved to be the case and the narrower Toru 4º-8º Followspots were installed.
Matt Kingslake, technical manager at the Grove Theatre comments on his decision to choose Selecon luminaires for his venue: “I was very pleased with the Selecon equipment I used at my previous venue and with the equipment I have seen brought in by visiting companies. Due to my experience using Selecon equipment, they were my first choice when sourcing lighting equipment for the Grove Theatre. I am especially impressed by the Aurora Cyc floods which give a good even spread of light.”