Production Futures: SLX Golden Gobo Award 2019

SLX Golden Gobo Award 2019

Lighting Designer Lucy Adams bags the inaugural SLX Golden Gobo Award for her work with Underbelly.

This year SLX launched the brand-new Golden Gobo Award following its involvement with 2019’s Edinburgh Fringe. The award went to Lucy Adams’ for her professionalism and excellent technical skills whilst working with Scottish production company Underbelly. Adam’s started her career in lighting at university where she got involved in extra-curricular productions as a Lighting Designer after already learning some technical skills on her course. After graduating she started working at Camden People’s Theatre as a technician then later a Production Manager for festivals. It was through this that she met other

companies that allowed her to pursue her career as a Lighting Designer. This isn’t the first time that Adams has been recognised for her talents having worked with companies like ThisEgg working on projects such as dressed which won a Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Fringe 2018 as well as It’s True, It’s True by Breach Theatre which also won a Fringe First in the same year. Sh e commented on how she got involved in the projects this year: “I was involved with Underbelly in 2018 when a couple of shows I was involved in went there and I was pleased to be back in 2019! I’ve never worked with SLX before, but I had heard of them from other Lighting Designers and Production Managers who seem to have a really good reputation within the theatre and live events world.” As a L ighting Designer, there were a few strategies Adams had for her projects like It’s True, It’s True in Edinburgh that allowed her to achieve the desired looks she wanted, despite challenges that came with it. “F or It’s True in 2019, we were developing it from the version we had done previously, so that involved amping up my previous design,” she explained. “This show is about Artemisia Gentileshci’s rape trial, so I wanted to evoke the feeling of a courtroom while also evoking images of renaissance paintings, as she was a painter. For this, angular lighting became very important, so we put lights on the floor to catch certain angles and also create big shadows on the back walls. “For It’s True, It’s True we were scaling up the design with a new set as well which was more challenging. Luckily, Underbelly were hugely supportive and allowed us to get into the space earlier to make sure we could get everything done to the standard I was happy with.” Ada ms also spoke about how honoured she felt to receive the inaugural Golden Gobo award: “It felt surreal to win the award! To have my work recognised by both SLX and Underbelly was amazing, especially after a long and difficult month in Edinburgh.” The work doesn’t stop yet this year for Adams, however, as she has more on her schedule on the run up to Christmas. She concluded: “We’ve just transferred Art Heist into New Diorama Theatre so that will run for the next couple of weeks. I’m then going to work on a Christmas show at the Old Fire Station in Oxford and with a few other projects in R&D I’ll be in and out of rehearsals!” TPi www.slx.co.uk