LES MISERABLES, 1985 Palace - the transfer of the original production to the West End
Scan of a paper copy of the hand-drawn light plot from the show's transfer. Initials suggest drawn by Adam Grater, who now runs DHA Designs, the company that evolved from David Hersey's architectural design work. Date is missing from the paper copy (the bottom of the paper was torn), but the different title box style/logo compared to Barbican version suggests this plan was an updated version of the original - probably updated by hand with a new title box placed over the original. The telephone numbers scribbled bottom-right suggest this paper copy was in use much later as the 0171area code for central London phone numbers was only introduced in the year 2000.
However, this represents the rig as it was through to about 1997 when the original antenna-rotator driven light curtains were replaced with DHA Digital Light Curtains, the semaphore colour changers were replaced with scrollers, some of the original rig was replaced with Source Fours, and the original lighting console (again a Galaxy) was replaced with a Strand 500-series console. (The rig was I think originally supplied by Theatre Projects, but at some point was purchased the producer, Cameron Mackintosh Ltd, with the additional equipment added during these changes supplied by rental company White Light.)
The rig as shown is fundamentally as the Barbican minus the RSC rep rig. The Barbican had a big 5K Fresnel upstage which is gone at the Palace, perhaps because the RSC had it in stock but it was expensive to rent in the West End, though David remembers it getting cut while working to fit the show into the much smaller Palace. You do occasionally see a production photograph of the man with the flag on the top of the barricades where this 5K is visible, identifying this photograph as being from the Barbican.
Channel numbers are quite different between the two productions, and it is likely that these channel numbers were just the same as the dimmers the lights were plugged in to rather than being a carefully designed softpatch.
from comments by Rob Halliday
Scan of a paper copy of the hand-drawn light plot from the show's transfer. Initials suggest drawn by Adam Grater, who now runs DHA Designs, the company that evolved from David Hersey's architectural design work. Date is missing from the paper copy (the bottom of the paper was torn), but the different title box style/logo compared to Barbican version suggests this plan was an updated version of the original - probably updated by hand with a new title box placed over the original. The telephone numbers scribbled bottom-right suggest this paper copy was in use much later as the 0171area code for central London phone numbers was only introduced in the year 2000.
However, this represents the rig as it was through to about 1997 when the original antenna-rotator driven light curtains were replaced with DHA Digital Light Curtains, the semaphore colour changers were replaced with scrollers, some of the original rig was replaced with Source Fours, and the original lighting console (again a Galaxy) was replaced with a Strand 500-series console. (The rig was I think originally supplied by Theatre Projects, but at some point was purchased the producer, Cameron Mackintosh Ltd, with the additional equipment added during these changes supplied by rental company White Light.)
The rig as shown is fundamentally as the Barbican minus the RSC rep rig. The Barbican had a big 5K Fresnel upstage which is gone at the Palace, perhaps because the RSC had it in stock but it was expensive to rent in the West End, though David remembers it getting cut while working to fit the show into the much smaller Palace. You do occasionally see a production photograph of the man with the flag on the top of the barricades where this 5K is visible, identifying this photograph as being from the Barbican.
Channel numbers are quite different between the two productions, and it is likely that these channel numbers were just the same as the dimmers the lights were plugged in to rather than being a carefully designed softpatch.
from comments by Rob Halliday
