Hilton College: 14 – 16 September
Lighting up people’s lives, Durban’s Michael Taylor-Broderick will be front and centre at the 26th Hilton Arts Festival taking place at Hilton College from 14 – 16 September.
Broderick, who is Festival Technical Director, will be overseeing the phenomenal team of bright sparks putting the spotlight on a number of productions at his 23rd Hilton Arts Festival.
The behind-the-scene technical stats for the fest are impressively substantial: the festival employs 18 skilled sound, lighting and stage technicians, takes months of pre-planning and takes a week to set up. Black Coffee Design, the official technical suppliers to the festival supply 3km of cabling, eight tons of staging, two tons of lighting equipment, one ton of sound equipment and enough trussing to build a bridge over the N2.
The lighting guru will not only be overseeing the technical requirements for 40 shows, but for the second year, he has created a piece. Following on from the hugely successful, whimsical show 1 Man, 1 Light, Broderick brings his brand new creation that he has crafted from scratch. The world premiere of The King of Broken Things takes place on Friday evening and runs four times over the weekend.
Broderick proudly states, “I am excited beyond description regarding my new ‘baby’, The King of Broken Things. I’ve learnt a few things since becoming a father a few years ago and this is an attempt to encourage grown-ups to revisit and re-inhabit the magical places in our minds where we freely and recklessly roamed as children. It’s about believing in and following your dreams throughout your lifetime. It’s dedicated to all the fathers who, despite living lives of quiet desperation, continue to inspire their children to believe in the magic and beauty of the world.”
Not only does Broderick play the role of hands-on technician at the festival, but he also plays the role of writer and director in the beautiful ethereal story, Jakob.
Continuing, he shares, “Jakob is that lost child that finds his way into your heart, that child who has the surprising ability to guide you towards the light when you are lost in the murkiness of life. It’s very dear to me as it’s a platform where I’m able to explore more than one creative leaning, whilst at the same time address one of society’s biggest issues at play in the world, prejudice. Every now and again I get to dust off the cobwebs and lose myself in the resurrection of Jakob. If it’s at all possible, Bryan Hiles, the performer in the role of Jakob, gets better and better in the role every time he performs it.”
Asked what his favourite colour light bulb, the gentle, soft spoken creative said, “A 2700 Kelvin incandescent, in layman’s terms that’s a light bulb that gives off a warm amber glow.”
Chatting about home life, he jokes, “I have 24 light switches, that’s including bedside lamps. I know that because I’m forever running around turning lights off after my kids.”
Broderick has been a part of the creative theatre industry for a quarter of a century now, “I’m a late comer to the industry but I’m an old guy now so it appears that I’ve been doing it forever when in fact it’s only been 25 years. Some guys have run more Comrades Marathons than that.”
Responding to what is the best show he has seen, he answers, “A good few years ago I saw a show called ‘They Say..’ directed by Lara Foot featuring Rob Van Vuuren. The lighting designer was Wesley France who truly is a master of his craft. After all these years I still have beautiful visual images of some of the scenes from that show. Incidentally, Wesley France is also the lighting designer for Suddenly The Storm (a Naledi Award winner for best Lighting Design among other things) which is playing at the festival this year.
Concluding, Broderick aspires, if he could light any show anywhere in the world, with no budget limits – what and where would it be? “Hands down it would be to collaborate with the genius that is Tom Waits in one of Europe’s Grand Opera houses. I wouldn’t care if it was lighting one of his Operas or one of his concerts, any opportunity to be in the same room as him would do it for me.”
The festival will take place on the beautiful grounds of the Hilton College from Hilton College: 14 – 16 September 2018.
The festival would not be possible without the generous support of Hilton College, Grindrod Bank, Black Coffee Design, DWR Distribution, Extreme Events, Bidvest Car Rental, KZN Dept of Arts & Culture, Redlands Hotel, Assitej South Africa, Loud Crowd, Sappi, BASA, and Corona.
For more info visit http://www.hiltonfestival.co.za/ or like the Facebook page, Hilton Arts Festival. Follow us on Twitter @HiltonFest and Instagram. All enquiries on 033 383 0126 / 7 or tickets@hiltoncollege.com. The 26th annual Hilton Arts Festival will run from 14 to 16 September. The full programme is on www.hiltonfestival.co.za. Online bookings is open and programmes are available from various outlets in KZN. Refer to website for list of outlets.
THE KING OF BROKEN THINGS
FRI 14 @19h00; SAT 15 @11h45, @19h15; SUN 16 @12h00
TICKET PRICE: R100
JAKOB
SAT 15 @14h00; SUN 16 @10h00
TICKET PRICE: R130
