The Peninsula Neighborhood peeps recently made a generous contribution to the Bath House Cultural Center theater.Since the the group’s press release is (unlike many press releases) readable, I will let it tell the story (below). But first, this picture (click it for larger version) includes: clockwise from top—Theresa Furphy, technical director, Bath House Cultural Center; Felix Saucedo, treasurer, Friends of the Bath House Cultural Center; Karen Casey, president, Friends of the Bath House Cultural Center; Joe Gillum, president Peninsula Neighborhood Association; Judith Trimble, secretary, Friends of the Bath House Cultural Center; Marty Van Kleeck, manager, Bath House Cultural Center. Photo by Anna Palmer, board member, Friends of the Bath House Cultural Center.
Dallas (October 15, 2011) — Sophocles used the sun to light his theater. So did Shakespeare. But since theaters moved indoors, directors have depended on artificial lighting to create and illumine their onstage worlds. At the Bath House Cultural Center the lights in the theater will burn a little brighter thanks to gifts from the Peninsula Neighborhood Association and the Friends of the Bath House Cultural Center. The local groups contributed a total of $18,000 that will be used to upgrade the Center’s stage lighting system with the purchase of 16 LED lights and related equipment.
Investing in the state-of-the art lighting instruments will triple the benefits to the black-box theater according to Marty Van Kleeck, manager of the Bath House Cultural Center. “We are grateful to the Friends and the Peninsula Neighborhood Association for their generous gifts,” she said. “These lights will conserve energy in the theater, increase flexibility for resident theater companies, and enhance the theatrical experience of audience members.”
“LED has had architectural applications for years, but its use for stage performances is more recent,” explained Theresa Furphy, technical director. “With LED technology, the light is brighter, but burns cooler and longer. So these lamps will conserve energy even as they add up to more than 60 lights for us to work with. “
The Bath House theater hosts three resident theater troupes and the annual Festival of Independent Theatres. “Lighting designers of the individual companies will love that each new lamp comes with five-color filters,” Kleeck continued. “These lamps can give a rainbow of color without having to change gels—the thin, colored transparent sheets used over a stage light to color it.” Additional equipment will allow Furphy to hang the lamps, or place them on the floor to light the large upstage curtain, or cyclorama.
That ease and flexibility will be especially valuable during the annual Festival of Independent Theatres when multiple theater troupes mount different productions, each with its unique lighting design, all hung in one light plot. Designers will no longer be restricted to using the same few colors, and the results will be richer, more imaginative theater for patrons.
Visit the Friends of the Bath House Cultural Center on Facebook.
