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Donald Holder specifies GLP X4 Bar 20s for Broadway production of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’

When Broadway theatre lighting designer Donald Holder was invited to design the lighting for the production of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ at New York’s Broadway Theatre, he turned to GLP’s new X4 Bar 20s. Holder had been approached by the show’s director Bartlett Sher, with whom he has a long-standing relationship, to be part of the revival of this hit musical.

“Even though my objective was to create a painterly and at times bleak and (as requested by Bart) a tungsten-lit environment, the technical challenges involved in mounting the production led me to employing some pretty sophisticated new technology, including the GLP X4 Bar 20s,” Holder explains.

The X4 Bar 20s appear in the opening seconds of the show, as the full cast (of around 40) appear in the mist while ascending a 45 ft wide staircase leading from the trap room, 8 ft below. “This dramatic moment cried out for an epic curtain of backlight coming from underneath and behind the cast, but I only had a 10 in deep x 9 in wide lighting trough to fit a potential new lighting idea,” Holder says. “The X4 Bar 20s immediately came to mind as offering a solution to this challenge.” And so working with GLP Inc president, Mark Ravenhill, he requisitioned eight of the fixtures.

Holder used the X4 Bar 20 also for backlighting drops and introducing colour and movement in the fog effects planned for ‘Tevye’s Dream’. “We start the sequence by backlighting a drop directly upstage of the large (hidden) staircase with a very rich blue to create a ghostly glow. With the entrance of Frumah Sarah’s ghost, the X4 Bar 20s tilt downstage into position, zoom to a wide beam, and change colour to a deep amber to dramatically uplight the fog rising up from the basement. We then introduced movement effects to subtly evoke the idea of fire.”

As for the singing of ‘Sunrise, Sunset’ a translucent painted sky drop flies in downstage of the submerged lighting trough, and once again the location of the lighting was ideal for backlighting this drop, enabling a layer of oranges and reds to boost the background during the wedding scene, where ‘Sunrise, Sunset’ is performed.

(Photos: Joan Marcus)

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