UK - The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff has recently installed a grandMA2 light console in its new 160 seat courtyard style Richard Burton Theatre, one of two performance spaces in a £22.5m landmark building development.
The College stages up to 18 drama productions a year and numerous music events, including student works and commercial shows. The College has owned a grandMA 'series 1' for three years, and so is well aware of the capabilities of MA Lighting's control platform and its superb reliability.
The grandMA2 was specified by senior technical lecturers and the technical operations department following detailed discussions about training and operational needs. The decision was fully endorsed by the College's technical operations manager Simon Denman-Ellis, who took up his new post at the College after 15 years as technical stage manager at Cardiff's busy St David's Hall venue, which also took delivery of its own grandMA2 full-size console in the last year.
The grandMA2 was installed in time for the building's opening ceremony. This included its first show - two performances of the Dylan Thomas classic Under Milk Wood. This production featured a lighting design by Mohit Basudev, a third year BA Stage Management student and himself an experienced grandMA 'series 1' programmer, who was absolutely delighted to get hands-on with the new console.
