Ligbron tames the beast

22 October 2012

Photos courtesy Lynn Roux

With a reputation of putting on superb musicals for the past 35 years, the Ligbron Academy of Technology for high school students in Ermelo outdid themselves with the production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

For a sprinkle of magic, Ligbron called on the services of JSF Productions for the full technical production. All equipment was hired in from MGG Productions.

“The show was very theatrical, it is after all a Disney musical,” commented Johan Ferreira of JSF Productions, technical director, designer and operator. “I did months of research and design to be able to recreate the Disney enchantment on an extremely tight budget.”

Ligbron usually host their musicals in a charming and well equipped theatre in Ermelo. With the venue not being available for this year’s production, it was held in the school hall instead. “The stage had a very low proscenium and top light was my greatest challenge because of the height issue,” explained Ferreira. “They also had to build the set from wall to wall which meant that no cables or equipment could be in the auditorium.” With this parameter, Ferreira designed every aspect of the show before leaving for Ermelo, knew every lighting and sound position and exactly where each cable would go.

Two transformation scenes had to be carefully thought out. “I had to recreate all the special effects with lighting only as there was no stage magic or flying in the show. I had a very small stage to work with and it was important to use lighting to create different ‘rooms’ on stage. I used saturated colours for the production and even in the gloomy scenes had to remember that it was a fairy tale musical.”

Working on an Avolites Pearl 2010, Ferreira says he had all the tools to create a beautiful show in a short amount of time. “It is a very reliable desk,” he said. “And the Avolites Power Cube Art 2000 has become my best friend on recent shows. It is great to have a compact distro and dimmer unit that never fails.

With limited space on stage, a Le Maitre MVS Hazer was utilized. “It has become my favourite, works great in almost any venue and is also light on fluid.” The Robe lighting fixtures were also said to run perfectly without a glitch.

Ligbron Academy of Technology lies close to Ferreira’s heart. It was the school he attended and it was his participation in their huge annual productions which led him to follow a career in the entertainment industry. “Even though it is a school I do some of my most taxing productions with them,” said Ferreira.

“They also make use of big industry professionals to help on their musicals from choreography to music arrangement, sound design and costumes. The scenery drops on stage were done by Nadine van As, who also worked on productions like High School Musical. The client was very happy with the end result; it looked like a professional stage production. It is amazing to see what these people do at a school, and it’s worth mentioning that they don’t receive any funds from the school, every cent is generated from sponsors and ticket sales.”

As for the student performance, directed by Herman and Anita Roodt, Ferreira has only praise. “I had to remind myself that they were in no way professional performers! Another thing I will never forget is everybody’s help during a very difficult setup. Students were willing to assist wherever they could and were eager to learn. We might even have some new recruits in the industry next year.”