For the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs (UCCS) performance of Capt. Murray Ross’ adaptation of Treasure Island, searching for treasure went beyond the stage as lighting designer James "Japhy" Weideman began to shape the lighting plot.
Although traditional fixtures were an option to Weideman, he was interested in the flexibility offered by Wybron's new NEXERA wash lights and chose to incorporate six units in the light plot.
Weideman found the NEXERAs to be lightweight and versatile. "In the beginning of my design process, I needed to make a few positioning adjustments in order to accommodate some changes in scenery height. At first, I was reluctant to move [the NEXERA wash lights] not knowing how long the labor would take. However, the NEXERAs were easy to reposition due to their compact and lightweight structure,"he says. " A lighting designer should think of them simply as conventional lights with wonderful CMY color mixing capabilities built inside. They truly require less fuss than conventional units with scrollers because it’s all in one unit: the way it should be."
Weideman hung the NEXERA fixtures to create a diagonal backlight system to achieve clean color washes across the deck while simultaneously sculpting the actors. He found that the units were well suited for shifting time-of-day atmospheres. In one sequence, the color is set in a saturated blue-green night at sea that slowly, over the course of a series of cues, shifts into a cool daylight blue, eventually ending in a bastard amber. Especially beautiful and convincing were the sunrise effects that Weideman achieved by slowly adding no color sidelight, while shifting the NEXERAs from daylight blue into light bastard amber.
"Overall, the NEXERA units add a new layer of flexibility to theatrical lighting design," comments Weideman. " Thanks to John Fuller and Wybron for letting me test them. I’ll definitely request them for another production in the near future."