Creatives Commentary: Curve's Head of Lighting Jonny Laidlow

Jonny Laidlow, Curve’s Head of Lighting on what it means to be a producing theatre and working with teams across the building to create a Made at Curve production on stage. 

I think these pictures define what we/I do at Curve more than most other pictures. They show the model stage of a design versus what we actually built on stage. The process between these pictures is what makes us a producing theatre. It requires an extraordinary amount of collaboration from a wide variety of skilled teams. Each area of the design is interlinked and navigating this challenge is demanding, but rewarding when we have the finished product on stage. One day I could be working with the Stage team on how they build a three storey structure on our stage whilst I’m trying to get a lighting rig up and working, the next discussing with the sound team how to get equipment rigged on our proscenium that best suits the sound quality and lighting angles required. This could be followed by working with Wardrobe on how the low fog and haze fluids will affect costumes and dance numbers to simple but key elements such as making sure the band have enough light to read their music whilst not distracting the audience. The pictures chosen show this process at the very beginning when all the questions are buzzing around, and then the final product when all the questions are answered.

Clockwise from top left – Michael Taylor‘s West Side Story set on our stage; Grace Smart‘s My Beautiful Laundrette set design on stage; Grace Smart‘s model box of the My Beautiful Laundrette set design; Designer Michael Taylor working on his West Side Story model box.