Gobos for sale!

2 March 2011

“As they walked through dappled sunlight, the light reflected off the water and into the church where the rosy glow from the stained glass window caught her face”. I have made this up but it is not unusual as a stage direction.

Sometimes we recreate this realistically, as those who have seen the willow tree bursting onto the stage of Relatively Speaking will know. Though normally, and more commonly, we use lighting and the use of a “Gobo” (what is that you may ask?).

Well, basically it is a template of steel which has a pattern cut or etched into it, which when we put it into a profile light that then produces an image with the beam of light – think of the light that summons Batman over Gotham City, or nearer to home a rabbit on the bedroom wall.

The designs we use cover everything imaginable from windows to giant cobwebs just check out http://www.rosco.com/uk/gobos.

The reason we are letting you all in on this secret of theatre is simple, many of you are associated with schools and amateur groups who often come to us asking to borrow such items. We now have some new and used ones we would like to sell, as over the last few years we have been replacing our old profile lights with more optically efficient types (all of which use about half the power of the old 1.2 kw. units) and take a different size gobo.

So, if anyone is interested in the list of gobos we are selling please contact the production office though please note we are only selling “A” size stock. production@watermill.org.uk

“And she saw the shadow of the Eifel Tower in the distance ….”

Lawrence Doyle – Production Manager