Technical direction

Les Misérables was one of the most challenging productions I've worked on, bringing together a cast of more than 30, a large pit orchestra and a sizeable crew. As technical director, coordinating the departments so that everything progressed smoothly across our rehearsal time was crucial to meeting our deadlines.

With only one rehearsal day a week in the eight weeks before our tech weekend, time in the space was tight, but the gaps between sessions gave me time to keep developing the design.

Lighting design

The key idea from the directors was a "wall of light" from upstage for the big ensemble numbers, such as "At the End of the Day" and "Do You Hear the People Sing?", which I created using Chauvet COLORband PiX and Elumen8 Tri8 pixel battens.

The other focus was isolation: showing characters cut off from those around them across both acts, from Jean Valjean's struggle to find work, to Fantine's death, Cosette's loneliness and Javert's suicide. Using a mix of moving heads and focused profiles, I separated each character with their own colour and focus palette.

With so many scenes, each needing its own distinct look, the design kept evolving from the first plans right through rehearsals to meet the directors' growing technical demands. Overall, it was an excellent experience with an amazing team.