LOUISE GREGORY
+44 (0) 7711 700693
louise@illuminationtheatreservices.co.uk
PRODUCTION & STAGE MANAGER
LIGHTING & SOUND DESIGNER

LIGHTING DESIGN

Bodies of Water - Bodies of Water Collective


Bodies of Water was an inclusive and playful, multi-sensory performance weaving together dance, music and visual art, and including participatory elements and interaction. It toured to rural venues across Scotland in 2019, and was performed in-the-round.


The design was kept very simple with just 6 channels to allow for performance in venues without technical facilities, and was operated through QLab to synchronise with the music and soundscapes. All lanterns were positioned on the floor.


I also production managed and toured with the show, and designed the ice sculpture which formed a focal point of the circle. 

Saffy Setohy and Joanna Young in Bodies of Water. Created by Bodies of Water Collective: Saffy Setohy, Joanna Young, Aya Kobayashi and Nicolette Macleod. Composer/Sound Designer: Nicolette Macleod. Lighting Designer: Louise Gregory.

Eline Hallem, Alice Parsloe & Liz Crowther. Photos by Taylography. Directed by Claire Coaché. Written by Lisle Turner. Set & Costume Designer: Becky-Dee Trevenen. Lighting Designer: Louise Gregory.

The Disappearing Act - Open Sky


I worked with Open Sky to light The Disappearing Act, which toured in Herefordshire and Shropshire in 2019. The show blended new writing, physical theatre, comedy and magic, and featured three performers playing the same character at different ages.


The show featured three large rotating mirrors on wheels, so to avoid reflections I used battery-powered LEDs attached to the mirror frames to light the performers. As the production toured to rural venues as well as theatres, the show was predominantly lit from the side, with very little overhead or front light, and with three strips of LEDs acting as footlights.

Rocket Girl - The Worriers & Alphabetti Theatre


I lit Rocket Girl for Alphabetti Theatre, a fringe theatre venue in Newcastle.  Rocket Girl was a children's show about the imaginary adventures of George Stephenson's inventive older sister, and was performed in thrust layout. 


A number of small birdie lanterns around the stage were used to create highlights and bold shadows, and I rigged a smoke machine overhead to produce the smokey red breath of a dragon, as well as a number of LEDs mounted into the back wall of the set to represent the night sky. Lightbulbs mounted over the audience produced sufficient light to guide them to their seats whilst recalling the symbol of the light bulb as the new idea of an inventor.

Jude Nelson as Georgina Stephenson in Rocket Girl. Directed by Ali Pritchard. Written by Steve Byron. Set Designer: Molly Barrett. Sound Designer: Nick Tyler. Lighting Designer: Louise Gregory.

Images from: 
HEART with Serena Manteghi, Tarrick Benham and Matt Jamie; Designer: Hannah Roche; Sound/Music: Ed Carter; Dramaturg: Ben Ayrton; Choreographer: Katie Armstrong. 
FOUND with Nadia Iftkhar and Philippa Vafadari; Choreographer: Nadia Iftkhar.
FLOCK with Christina Berriman Dawson, Ruth Johnson, Carl Kennedy, Rosa Stourac McCreery, Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh. Set Designer: Yvette Hawkins. Costume Designer: Emily Stuart. Composer/Musical Director: Mariam Rezaei. Associate Director: Rosie Kellagher. 
All shows directed by Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh and written by Steven Gaythorpe. Lighting Designer: Louise Gregory. 
HEART; FOUND; FLOCK - ZENDEH

I worked regularly with ZENDEH, lighting a number of their shows. Their productions gave me an opportunity to experiment and play with lighting effects and colour. 

HEART was inspired by film noir, and was a very stark design utilising a minimal number of lanterns and with brief bold splashes of colour. 
“illuminated by Louise Gregory’s tantalising and exotic lighting” TVBomb.co.uk

For one scene in FOUND I wanted to draw all the warmth from the performer's skin. Since I could not find a colour that would do that, I created a new colour by blending together three different gels. The show had elements of contemporary dance, aerial, projection and text, so I lit this with lots of side light and a strong use of colour.  The set consisted of a number of glowing globes suspended around the stage, which I also designed and built. 

FLOCK was a magical piece set across time and place, so I often lit the performers as if they were appearing from nowhere. For one scene, set in a forest, I used distressed gel to create a natural breakup pattern without having to use a gobo. The production also included a giant pomegranate with 750 individual LEDs as its seeds, and an illuminated birdcage, both of which I created and built. The set was a number of trees created from paper, and bringing out the structure of these elements was also a key part of my lighting design for this show. 
Transmission - Becs Andrews Company

Transmission was a design-led interactive installation and contemporary dance piece that explored infectious networks (disease, memes) and how changes at a molecular level can have global consequences. Sound and video was triggered by specific movements (eg: proximity) and displayed immune system information (ie: spine lights) through sensor-embedded costumes.

Overhead projection which responded to the dancers' movements illuminated the performance area, so my lighting had to retain this element whilst ensuring that the performers were well lit. Occasional subtle use of colour added to the emotional register of some of the dance pieces. 

The piece was performed as part of the Yorkshire Festival of Ideas, and was well-received. 

“It’s brilliant. Never seen anything like this fusion of light, sound and movement before.” Audience member 
Polly Motley, Debbi Purtill, James Southward and Isabel Slingerland in Transmission. Photos by Chris Nash. Lead Artist & Producer: Becs Andrews. Choreography: Simon Birch. Music Composed by: Jon Hughes. Visual Programmer: Phill Tew. Costume Designer: Becs Andrews. Lighting Designer: Louise Gregory. Sound Programmer: Dr Tom Mitchell. Electronic Engineering: Seb Madgwick. Lead Scientist: Prof. Mike Brockhurst.
Carla Lewis in Dissolve. Original Production Camera by Jon Plimmer. Restaged Production Camera by Dilesh Patel.  Both productions directed by Amy Lewis and devised by the Company. Lighting Designer: Louise Gregory. 
Dissolve - Awkward City

Devised by the company, ‘Dissolve’ was inspired by several true accounts of memory loss. The character’s memories were constructed live with the use of sound effects and props, and framed with real-time projected footage. The audience were able to watch her world being constructed and deconstructed around her. Lighting, staging and props were moved around the actor and the camera.  My design was extremely flexible, and all at floor level so it could be adjusted and refocused during the performance. Both myself and the cameraman were on stage during the performance, visible to the audience and responsible for all the scenic and props movements. The production was subsequently redeveloped as part of an emerging theatre festival.

“Lighting Designer Louise Gregory operates all of her kit at stage level, and provides some beautiful visual effects for both the live and filmed elements.” Katherine Kavanagh
The Gruffalo, The Witch and The Warthog with Julia Donaldson

I was Lighting Designer and Technical Manager for this sell-out Edinburgh Fringe production. The show was performed in the Udderbelly, which has a fixed lighting rig, so my challenge was to create a successful lighting design within the restricted time of a fringe tech session!  The show contained several different stories, so I aimed to create a different feel for each story.  As it was a children's show, I kept the overall look quite bright and colourful, making sure that the performers faces were always lit and that the auditorium was bright enough so that the littlest audience members didn't get too scared when the Gruffalo appeared! 
Julia Donaldson, Malcolm Donaldson, Mary Moore, Joanna Hutt and James Huntington  in The Gruffalo, The Witch and The Warthog with Julia Donaldson. Photos by Steve Ullathorne. Directed by Peta Maurice. Written by Julia Donaldson. Designer: James Lewis. Lighting Designer: Louise Gregory. Musical Director: Brian Hargreaves.
Nicole Vivien Watson, Vangeline, Molly Carter in Project Godie. Photos by Claire Palmer. Music: Trans/Human. Lighting Designer: Louise Gregory. 
Project Godie - Surface Area Dance Theatre

This butoh dance performance took place in a Grade 1 listed church in the centre of Newcastle.  The large windows at the back of the performance space, where the dancers began performing, lit the space as dusk slowly fell, so the challenge was to seamlessly move from daylight to night within the lighting. The venue had restricted power, and no rigging positions for lanterns, so we built booms in the upper seating area, and used a small quantity of lanterns at floor level to light the piece. 
Bellydance: A True Story - Helwa
Rihla: A Journey Through Bellydance - Tarab Dance Company

I have worked on a number of Bellydance shows, including the UK Tour of Tarab Dance Company's Rihla, and Helwa's sell-out Edinburgh Fringe production Bellydance: A True Story.  

Bellydance is a joyful, fun and inclusive form of dance, with colourful and bright costumes, decorated with sequins and with veils which catch the light as they are moved. The exotic music encourages brilliant colours and strong saturated colour.  My lighting designs respond with a playful use of colour and shape, and with plenty of movement with flashes and pulses of light. 

I have worked with some of Egypt's much-loved bellydance performers, Sara Farouk, Yasmina of Cairo and Mohamed Kazafy, and toured the UK with Helwa in 2019. 
Images from Rihla: A Journey Through Bellydance with Claire Barnfather, Heather Charlton, Anna Bisco, Sabrina Hall, Vanessa Clipsham, Nisha Lall, Joanne Miller, Stephanie Jagger, Naomi Howard, Sarah Pulman; and Leyl el Raqassa with students from Claire Barnfather's Solo Performance Project. 
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