Home to the Iceland Dance Company, the 11,000sqm Reykjavik City Theatre hosts everything from classic to contemporary drama presented on any of its four stages. To provide more dynamic lighting options for its threatre designers, the venue was subject to a brand new installation of Philips Vari-Lite VL1100TS luminaires. With the main stage providing seating for 560 audience members, the theatre requires dedicated lighting, sound and set building departments and services most of its production in-house. “Reykjavik City Theatre received a grant from Reykjavik City (its main backer) to replace the majority of standard theatre spotlights with automated tungsten fixtures,” explains Thordur Orri Petursson, head of lighting, Reykjavik City Theatre. “This decision was taken to reduce the number of fixed fixtures required in the FOH position, to reduce focusing time in a repertory environment and to add flexibility in programming.” Icelandic sales and rental company Luxor supplied the lights, with sales manager Alfred Sturla Bodvarsson selected to oversee the installation along with Petursson and Philips Vari-Lite trainer Coral Cooper, winner of the 2010 Knights of Illumination Lifetime Achievement Award. “The deciding factor was the CYM color-mixing, the number of gobos it can hold, and the overall size of the fixture. “We have a number of VL1000AS units for top lighting above the stage, so we were comfortable with the reliability of the Vari-Lite products and also the excellent level of local service,” comments Petursson. “The VL1100 TS is ideal for this kind of theatre environment because the new 3-Phase motors on pan and tilt give greater accuracy and significantly reduce the noise of motor operation,” continues Cooper. “The fixtures feature CYM colour mixing, rotating gobos and variable diffusion and, with this particular luminaire, the automated four-blade shutter mechanism, providing an ideal workhorse for theatre.” www.vari-lite.com
