CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO SEE THEM ENLARGED
"...Directed by Richard Eyre, Amy's View also gave New York audiences their first real chance to see Dame Judi Dench perform and perform she does in the role of Esme Allen, a middle-aged actress at a turning point in her career.
Bob Crowley's sets of an Engllish Country House, with projections by Wendall K. Harrington were lit by Mark Henderson, who primarily used ETC Source Fours with some PARs and fresnels overhead. He also added patterns with double gobo overlays in Source Fours to dress black fabric around the proscenium. "The room interiors are very realistic, yet contemporary," says Henderson. He added two 5kW fresnels stage left to indicate light coming in from the garden.
The last scene in the show is the most striking, and takes place in a theatre within the theatre. Lit from above with striplights, two large layers of white silk upstage fall dramatically, one a beat after the other, to reveal a painted backdrop of a big theatre
(the backdrop was added for the New York production, since the Barrymore Theatre is less deep than the stages at the Royal National Threatre and in the West end where the play had previously been performed.) "The backdrop is not lit specifically," explains Henderson, who used small PAR-36 lamps. "Some of the instruments are actually painted on."
Henderson's color palette was selected to give the play a contemporary feel, with apricot (Rosco 317) and straw (Rosco 09) for sunlight, and scarlet (Rosco 24) added for a sunset look. A cool blue (Rosco78) was used to simulate moonlight. David Weiner served as Henderson's assistant LD...
The picture in the upper right shows Judi with Ronald Pickup. Lower left shows Judi, Samantha Bond and Tate Donovan and Judi and Samantha Bond are in the picture at the lower right.
Thanks to Linda (Hugs) for sending me a copy of the July, 1999 issue of LightingDimensions -- The Magazine for Lighting Professionals in which this article appeared. Actually I may have put in a bit more information than we need, but I'm sure that the people who did the work would appreciate the recognition and you can never tell who among us will end up in the lighting profession.
