WICKED performance by Acme Lighting

The Broadway smash hit musical WICKED landed at HOTA (Home of The Arts) last month for a strictly limited season.

The sold out production of the Stephen Schwarthz musical, directed by Tim Hill, was brought to the Gold Coast by Matt Ward Entertainment.

Krank’d Audio Visual Productions were engaged to provide dynamic lighting design and production for this Broadway blockbuster.

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The untold Wicked story of the witches of Oz is full of dramatic scenes, so the choice of powerful and flexible lighting fixtures was crucial to capture all the unique moments and surprising twists throughout the show. To highlight the wickedness of Elphaba and beauty of Glinda on one stage at the same time was a great challenge, that was only going to be achieved with a dynamic lighting rig.

Wesley Bluff, Lighting Designer and cofounder of Krank’d Productions, has used Acme CM-700Z fixtures and Acme RGBW Stage PARs as the main workhorses of the lighting rig, which provided a perfect intense light coverage of the stage and performers.  

“We spent a lot of time researching different intelligent fixtures to add to our inventory, but just couldn’t go past the Acme CM-700Z”, comments Wes. “We needed a fixture that had a high output, but also could provide smooth and subtle colour control for theatrical productions. Our Acme Stage PAR 100 and MP-400Z fixtures are by far our work horse fixtures, especially having an outdoor IP rating they can be used in so many different situations.”

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“For atmospherics, our go to Haze Generator is the MDG ATMe, which we also used for WICKED”, says Wes. “The fine haze it produces is perfect for our theatrical works and even for our corporate events which require atmosphere, but not dense clouds of smoke. We have also used our MDG IceFogQ on Wicked Stage.”

“Being a Gold Coast based company, having locally placed suppliers and support is crucial. The team at ULA Group have always been extremely helpful when we come to them looking for new products, or for ongoing support with our current inventory,” adds Wes.

WICKED tells the incredible untold story of an unlikely but profound friendship of two girls, with messages and themes of sisterhood, female empowerment, and the nature and contrast of good and evil.

The musical celebrated its fifteenth anniversary on Broadway last year and has spawned numerous productions worldwide, breaking box-office records around the globe.