Using Robe and Anolis LED products, lighting designer Lawrence T Doyle was able to reduce the power consumption needed to run lights for Boxford Masques' biannual community production by a massive 90 per cent!

This year's performance, "Knight & Day", was staged over a week in a picturesque natural amphitheatre on the top of Hoar Hill in Boxford, Berkshire, UK.

Lawrence, a freelance LD, is also production manager at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury which produced the event. He asked Robe UK's Ian W Brown to help him find a greener solution for lighting the show.

The answer was to utilise 24 Anolis ArcLine Outdoor Optic 12 and 18 strip fixtures and 6 Robe REDBlinder 2-96s.

The 20 metre wide, 10 metre deep stage and set was designed by Sam Pine, and built in the amphitheatre which also features heavy natural tree coverage. This was a special production for 2008, based on a modern adaptation of Charlotte Peake's magical Edwardian original.

The last production in 2006 had involved over 100K of tungsten lighting. This year, using the LED units judiciously, that figure was reduced to a simple 6K front-of-stage wash.

The ArcLines were rigged onto the set around the back and sides of the stage and used for general effects and illumination, with some units used specifically for up-lighting the tree canopy, all of it becoming visible as daylight, then dusk gave way to night. This natural dimming adding extra resonance and texture to the drama and the concept of 'night & day'.

Two of the REDBlinder 2-96s were rigged on stands either side of stage and used to produce powerful cross stage washes. The other 4 were on the front truss, also lighting along the front of the stage.

The show featured a lively soundtrack from local band Gigscool and lots of dance routines, so the full performance area needed to be well lit, for which the LEDs were a great success says Lawrence.

Each of the 6 main characters was represented by a different time of the day, so lighting was also very central to the piece, in effect almost assuming an acting role itself, as well as colour coding the players.

"The lensing on the front of the ArcLines is particularly good and really helps smooth out the point-sources, and the colour temperature is excellent" adds Lawrence.

Another huge benefit of using the LEDs was that the generator consumed only about a tenth of the diesel it did in 2006. Also, drawing a steady current of about 10 Amps, it didn't have to keep surging to deal with the peaks and toughs of power demand, as the current requirements were far more constant and even. Consequently it was also a lot quieter!

Another great advantage to the production was that the get in/out and the rigging took far less time and was considerably easier than before - when they had to lug 100 odd lightsources and dimmers up the hill and run hundreds of metres of multicores and other cabling. This year, the distro element was reduced to 2 flight cases.

Lawrence programmed the show onto a Strand 300 Series console that was operated by one of the show's DSMs.