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Elation Paragon plays key role in modern “Hamlet” at Mark Taper Forum

A world-premiere modern adaptation of “Hamlet” recently wrapped at Center Theatre Group’s Mark Taper Forum in downtown Los Angeles. Adapted and directed by Robert O’Hara, this modern take on Shakespeare’s classic tragedy blended video, new scenes and characters, and a film noir aesthetic with lighting design by Tony Award nominee Lap Chi Chu. To help realize the show’s visual concept, Chu turned to Elation’s Paragon LED framing profile moving head.

Running from May 28 through July 6, 2025, the production was boldy imaginative and anything but traditional. With a younger audience in mind, the creative team leaned into a stylized visual approach, and lighting played a central role. “We were looking to do something exciting and new”, says Chu. “The lighting and design mandate was film noir, and I was looking for dynamic, single-source lighting to capture that feel.”

Chu collaborated with Los Angeles-based Kinetic Lighting. Chu and Aaron Staubach, Head Electrician at the Mark Taper Forum who operated the show, were introduced to the Paragon through Kinetic along with Elation Product Application Specialist Nick Saiki. “Nick articulated well why the Paragon is different”, says Chu. “What really stood out was CRI as an adjustable, fadeable parameter. In the past, you had to rather ungracefully drop in a CRI filter, but Paragon gave us the ability to fade smoothly from one CRI value to another - going from looking great on skin for a front light special to cutting through space with greater firepower. That was very exciting to me as a designer and is a big advantage in live theatre.”

Staubach agrees: “My role is technical so I go to a lot of demos, and the difference between fixtures can be marginal. But when I heard about Paragon’s CRI adjustability, that was big for me as well. Being able to dial that in on a cue-by-cue basis, more punch one moment and adjust for skin tones the next, gives designers a lot more flexibility. As head electrician, being able to point out that feature to a designer is very exciting.”

Five Paragon M fixtures were used in overhead positions throughout the 739-seat space, providing coverage for the three-quarter thrust stage. Chu says the lighting palette was aggressive and blunt, dropping the CRI to a low level for some scenes and using the CMY color mixing to achieve the desired colors. The set - a drained luxury pool surrounded by Spanish architecture - was bathed in saturated blue and teal-green tints, helping set a cool, moody tone.

The Paragon’s color mixing system proved especially versatile in the show’s most dramatic transitions. The ability to shift to a bold, all-red look for the show’s final moments gave the lighting design added impact. “There is a scene at the end, very stylized, a death scene where everything bluntly turns to red - here we went from a white shaft of light to a signifying type of saturated red with the CMY system”, says Chu, calling it one of the production’s most striking effects.

(Photos: Jeff Lorch)

www.elationlighting.com

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