LEWISBURG, PA - (For Immediate Release) - The Stephen Sondheim production
Company won widespread acclaim when it debuted in 1970, not to mention six
Tony Awards, for its trailblazing treatment of adult relationship themes and
its departure from the traditional "linear storyline" that characterized
musicals of its era. Lighting designer William Kenyon reflected a similar
outside-the-box spirit recently, when he illuminated the Sondheim classic at
Bucknell University's Natalie Davis Rooke Recital Hall.

The 160-seat Rooke hall is a sleekly attractive modern facility with
excellent acoustics. However, being designed primarily for recitals, it
presented challenges that had to be addressed when lighting a full-scale
musical production. Kenyon met this challenge and managed to fit a fully
realized show into a relatively small (20' across by 15' deep) semi-circular
space with limited power draw, thanks in part to his innovative use of
CHAUVET Professional COLORado 1-Quad Tour LED fixtures provided by 4Wall
Entertainment.

"My design plans definitely had to account for factors that you don't'
normally find in a typical theatre," said Kenyon. "This is a very beautiful
hall, but it doesn't have much theatre lighting infrastructure. To address
this, I had to rely heavily on LED fixtures so I could extend the limited
power available to me. There was adequate power in the catwalk for the
conventional ellipsoidal fixtures that I used for front lighting, but my
entire over-stage rig had to run on four 20amp outlets, which also had to be
shared with the band. This obviously made it essential to deploy
energy-efficient LED fixtures in this area."

A collection of ten COLORado 1-Quad Tour fixtures helped Kenyon address his
power draw issue while still providing a vast and vivid palette of colors
for the production. "I set up the COLORado fixtures as a combination of
diagonal back lights and color washes for the performers and the floor," he
said. "We had two booms over the stage with four COLORado units on each. The
booms were located USR and USL so they shot along a diagonal path and not
straight out to the audience."

In addition to the eight COLORados projecting light diagonally over the
stage, Kenyon used two more of the Chauvet LED pars as cross-light washes to
tone the band, which were positioned up center through a set of doors in the
back wall where a piano normally is stored.

"This venue only has a small FOH catwalk, so it was critical to create
additional positions to give some flexibility to the looks," he said. "The
COLORados were essential to helping us add extra depth to the space. They
also helped us control the look over the stage's distinctive blonde wood
deck with color. Architecturally speaking, this is a pretty hall, but
unlike in a typical theatre, the back wall and floor is all bright wood, so
you have to address it with intentional lighting choices. It just won't go
away in the dark. We had to colorize it to control the look. The
color-mixing capabilities of the COLORados were very much appreciated!"

Like all successful projects, this one was the result of a team effort, said
Kenyon, who thanked director Emily Martin-Moberley of the Bucknell faculty,
Katie Kudrick of 4Wall Entertainment's Washington DC office, Kalen Sowul
from the Weis Center at Bucknell and Heath Hansum at the Bucknell Theatre
program for their help and support.

"This was an experiment to see if it was possible to fit a fully realized
show into this kind of space," he said. "The reaction was very positive from
everyone who saw it. Most people had no idea that we would be able to take
over and control the whole space from a color-and-light perspective the way
we did. So we were very proud of what we accomplished here."