While most of us are still enjoying the last remnants of summer (apologies to our readers in the Southern hemisphere), some members of the Electro Kabuki community are already headlong into Christmas plans.
A new order for Electro Kabuki with DMX control arrived from the First Baptist Church Pasadena recently, and we despatched the system last week. Many churches in the US are avid users of Electro Kabuki.
West London-based Electro Kabuki user, Colour Sound Experiment Ltd, deployed its EK system as part of a bespoke touring lighting and effects package built and rigged for ‘alt rockers’ The Kooks, for the band’s recent The Best of… so Far tour. The tour closed with a high-profile gig at London’s Alexandra Palace, which required extra lighting production.
Casting our eyes over the enquiry log for Electro Kabuki creates a sense of wonder at the diversity of the system’s geographic appeal – and generates more than a little curiosity about the kinds of organisations looking to deploy staged reveals. We despatch EK systems to the four corners of the globe. A quick glance at the enquiry log for the last couple of months alone shows the US, Japan, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, the UAE, Mexico, France, Germany and Iceland amongst others.
News just in from one of our Electro Kabuki users in the US. Our friends at Cedar Point, a top amusement park in Ohio (and known as the roller coaster capital of the world) sent us a cool video showing how they use an EK drop in the middle of a live pyrotechnic and laser-filled music and dance performance. And it all takes place outdoors! That’s no problem for the EK system – it’s fully weatherproof.
Not every theatrical reveal lends itself perfectly to Electro Kabuki, though most do. But this high-profile event, staged by our very good friends at FE UK Ltd, demanded a perfect reveal for a new war memorial sculpture in London’s Victoria Embankment Gardens to be unveiled by The Queen.
The drape covering the sculpture needed to drop to the ground for the reveal, with the world’s press watching and beneath the gaze of 2500 military veterans. No pressure there, then!
As a famous bear once said “Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon“! But what if you had thousands of balloons? Surely that’s enough to put a smile on the faces of a whole crowd of people. Just recently we were involved in a giant cargo net release filled with countless multi-coloured balloons over an auditorium filled with hundreds of people.
The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama has undertaken a trial of theatrical drop options, including our EK system. For now, all we know is that EK came out top in the test against other ways of dropping a curtain or drape.
