Congo Design, Dan Creasey, Lighting Designer, Blackpool, Flyde, Lancashire

Andy Abraham & The History Of The Big Bands

[April 2012]

Barisons Production Management approached Congo Design to design the lighting for the current tour of Andy Abraham's History Of The Big Band show which travelled to many theatres around the UK.
The tour consisted of utilising LED's in all the music stands to give quite a unique and simple effect, this combined with Martin moving fixtures and Congo's stock of LED products the end product is reflected in these pictures.

The Christians & The Coustics Live

[March 2012]

Cuffe & Taylor Events Management promoted The Christians & The Coustics live at Lowther Pavilion in a new era of live music events at the theatre. Congo Design was asked to design the lighting based around the music and with our long standing relationship with the Lowther Pavilion it was a pleasure to undertake such a task.

RNLI Cockle Ball 2012

[February 2012]

Congo Design in association with Rowleys Catering & Event Management & Deni Middleton of Centre Piece Designs turned Lowther Pavilion into a starry night in aid of the RNLI of Lytham St Annes.

Pendle Productions - Pantomime

[December 2011]

Pendle Productions approached Congo Design to design the lighting and implement the technical requirements for the 2011 panto season at the Thwaites Empire Theatre in Blackburn, Lowther Pavilion, Lytham and the touring production of Dick Whittington at various venues throughout Tameside, Manchester.
Photography - (C) 2011 Mike Johnson Mikeseye Photographic

Bionow Awards Nov 2011

[November 2011]

The Bionow Awards ceremony took place at the Mere Golf & Country Club in November 2011. It was lit with Martin Mac 250 fixtures augmented by Chroma Q Colorblock LED batterns. Programmed on an Avolites Tiger console.

BBC Lancashire

[November 2011]

BBC Lancashire in association with the Lowther Pavilion put on a series of events over the autumn season. One of them being a charity concert in aid of Children In Need. "BBC Rocks Out For Pudsey" was staged at Lowther in November 2011 and raised over £2000 for the charity.

Lighting Design - Dan Creasey

Photography - (C) 2011 Mike Johnson Mikeseye Photographic

Legends

[August 2011]

This year I was asked to design, implement and operate the lighting for the Legends show in Blackpool.
This job involved two months of prep work in creating colour schemes and programming plots to each song for each artist.
The show employs small moving fixtures with an LED rig which gave me a large scope and free reign on the design and approach. The success of the Legends show continues to grow from strength to strength and remains a popular attraction to Blackpool

Lytham Proms - 2011

[August 2011]

Cuffe & Taylor Event Management once again approached Congo Design to design and implement the lighting design for their annual Proms event in Lytham St Annes.
This was by far a larger scaled event than in previous years with acts such as Status Quo and Katherine Jenkins playing to over 7000 people.
The variety of acts meant that an all round lighting design had to be sourced in accordance with each artists requests.
It was a huge success for everyone on the Fylde coast.

Wigan Haigh Hall Live July 2011

[July 2011]

Cuffe & Taylor Event Management approached myself to design and coordinate the lighting design and infrastructure at their outdoor concert event in July 2011.
This event consisted of three days of music ranging from live bands to popular music.
Planning began in Feb 2011 and Lite Alternative were chosen as the preferred contractor to hire the lighting equipment needed.
The lighting was designed with emphasis on visual impact given that most of the concert would be in daytime due to the summer hours.

Acorn Antiques The Musical

[May 2011]

Clifton Theatre Company presented Acorn Antiques the Musical at Lowther Pavilion under limited license for stage.
This was a rare opportunity to light a performance that hasn't been produced on the amateur market before.
Although the design in essence was simple there was a multitude of special effects not least including a flashing moose and a stairlift.

New Years Eve Events

[December 2010]

Once a year the Friends of Lowther Pavilion hold a New Years Eve event that does exceedingly well to raise funds for the preservation of the Lowther Pavilion theatre.
In conjunction with Jack Irving a local Set Designer we set about turning the theatre into what first was an "ice" theme but quickly turned into something out of the Chronicles of Narnia.

The end result as these pictures show was something to be proud of for all involved.

Legends in Concert - Dubai

[November 2010]

Legends corporate work extended this time outside of the EU to the UAE Dubai Media City Amphitheatre.
This was a very prestigious job that required some translation of language to get the results I was looking for.
This lighting rig which consisted of Clay Paky Alpha Spot & Wash 700's and Robe 1200 Spots allowed me to fully realise the design of the legends show which in essence is a true hybrid between theatre and rock and roll.
It was a pleasure to light in such wonderful surroundings.

Les Miserables

[November 2010]

Les Miserables. Arguably the worlds best known musical.

Ever since I was a student at school when I lit this musical using a handful of old generic lighting fixtures I had to hand I knew my career path had started

It was a pleasure to be asked by the Lytham Academy of Theatre Arts to light this show once more.

Martin Mac 700 fixtures were used along with I Pix Satellite LED washes to create the famous French Flag silhouette.

Bionow Award Ceremony

[October 2010]

In association with Light The Way I was asked to program and operate a corporate awards dinner at the Mere Golf & Country Club in Cheshire.
DB4 Colour Block LED and Martin Mac 250 Entours were used to highlight the key speakers and provide mood lighting.

Sweeney Todd

[September 2010]

Sweeney Todd was really a show that evolved around the staging and lighting. Local Set Designer Jack Irving created a white blank canvas that needed to be lit to portray time of day and mood.
I designed the lighting around the dark nature of the musical and kept to very cold colours contrasted with hints of ambers and reds for the more darker scenes.

Lytham Proms - 2010

[August 2010]

Cuffe & Taylor Event Management approached me to be involved in the design and implementation of bringing Lytham Proms back to the Fylde Coast after a long absence. This job involved alot of prior consultation and liaising with various contractors to pull the event off.
In essence the design brief was simple - to make sure the orchestra and acts were seen. The rest was left up to myself on what effects to bring in.

The first challenge being that most of the evenings entertainment would be in daylight as it was August and not dark until 9pm. Secondly we had to make sure the equipment was in a position that wasn\'t affected by the weather.
These situations proved difficult to deal with but the end result was the rain stayed away and the event was a huge success.

Legends Corporate Work

[August 2010]

Legends shows extend outside of Blackpool and incorporate corporate work as well as outdoor stages. This particular example was an award ceremony at the Excel Centre, London.

Clay Paky fixtures were used throughout.

Billy Elliot The Musical

[May 2010]

Clifton Academy sought the rights for the full production of Billy Elliot the Musical at Lowther Pavilion.
This was a rare opportunity to light a west end musical with full production values and recieved standing ovations every performance.

Darren Shaw & The Dynamics

[January 2010]

I was asked to design and operate a small scale tour of a musical revue show which consisted of a male vocalist and four dancers.
We toured all the lighting and staging equipment and played venues across the UK and Northern Ireland

The Royal Variety Performance - Blackpool

[December 2009]

I was asked to be part of the lighting crew for the huge task of bringing the Royal Variety Performance to Blackpool.
This was quite a challenge for all concerned as there were some international artists playing on the Opera House stage.

The Producers

[July 2009]

Premier Theatre Company presented "The Producers" at the Blackpool Grand Theatre in July 2009. This was one of the first amateur licenses available in the area.


As it was a new venue to me in terms of the equipment available I sourced some Martin Mac 700's and 250 Kryptons to compliment the in house wash rig.


The staging was from Scenic Projects which came with white LED's inserted into the set pieces making for an interesting design approach.


It was an absolute pleasure to work with the creative team at the Grand and in Premier Theatre Company and the end result was something to be proud of.

Jekyll & Hyde The Musical

[May 2008]

Jekyll & Hyde the Musical was the first of a generation of new works presented at the Lowther.

The director's vision enabled myself and the creative team to pull together technical aspects which have common place in larger venues.

Carousel

[June 2006]

Carousel was one of the first musicals I lit as the Technical Manager at Lowther Pavilion in Lytham.
I was awarded a National Operatic and Dramatic association's award for the "Best Stage Lighting" for my efforts.