The Gate Theatre Gala at St Paul’s Hammersmith

Founded in 1979, the Gate Theatre has always presented bold international plays to a London audience, in its unique 75-seat theatre. Since then, the artists and artistic directors who have made work there have contributed to a formidable reputation that defies its size.

The quality of its work is recognised by the Arts Council as one of their National Portfolio Organisations, as well as by the Jerwood Foundation who continue to support the Jerwood Designers programme at the Gate after 17 years.

Today, the Gate continues to present ground-breaking international work from a diverse range of voices and perspectives. They encourage collaboration and support the next generation of theatre talent to make their best work. The Gate Theatre Gala raised funds to help deliver the Gate’s ambitious artistic programme, build on the participatory work they deliver in the local community and support programmes for emerging artists.

As the AV and Events Partner at St Paul’s Hammersmith for all their internal and external events, the Gate Theatre was recommended to use SFL Group due to their knowledge of the venue. The brief was to supply a lighting, audio and stage solution for the Gala dinner and work to a budget. We worked alongside their Production Manager Tammy, Sound Designer Jay and Lighting Designer Prema to create a night to remember. Tammy worked to source many elements of the creative and glitzy design.

The Gate had an amazing vision for a stage to come down the aisle of the church and be at the same height as tables.  SFL were able to use Congo Blue who are part of the SFL Group Stage sizes to complete the stage and height needed.  Congo Blue Design are part of the SFL Group and through their creative design offer a wide range of stage sizes and shapes for such events.  We worked with the LD to offer our lighting from in house to create the effects wanted.  Silver slash curtains were hung on the truss and festoon lighting hung round the pillars, supplied by the Gate

St Paul’s offers in-house solutions for the PA system but the client wanted to add to this.  Knowing the system meant we could compliment it with the right solution. The truss down each side had to be thought about how to do without knocking any of the existing St Paul’s audio and screens.  We had to allow for how wide the truss can be with load weighting and ensure this was done correctly.

Photos: Brendan Foster.