Alexander Allen
Biography
Alexander entered the varied world of Theatre with a City & Guilds 1810 qualification under his belt and started gaining extensive experience through a couple of touring shows and various other projects.
The ‘calling of the sea’ offered the next set of challenges. Contracts over the next six years provided work on Victoria, Aurora, Oriana, Arcadia and Artemis. Modernisation (via refits) and bringing a new ship on-line (Arcadia) were among the many challenges experienced within the Entertainment Department.
During time spent working with the creative team of CMC whilst remaining with P&O he was to advise on the technical specifications for new show ideas and to improve on ways to keep the old traditions alive. A varied input to show operation led to successful and extensive programming of lighting boards with a great flair and finesse for moving light work. This lighting side materialised into full lighting designs for production shows.
During the recurring contracts with P&O Cruises, progression to Production Manager was inevitable and this happened in late February 2002. Re-introducing Pyrotechnics to P&O with the new safety standards and setting up Chemical and Environmental Compliance policies for the on-board entertainments department have been some of the noteworthy production manager challenges.
In June 2006 career prospects and planning for the future saw Alexander leave his sea legs behind for a while and start trading as 4Kandles Lighting, offering a Lighting Design, Programming and Specification service to the entertainment industry.
2007 brought contacts from far and wide allowing lighting design work on various productions and shows, with the hi-light being the UK tour of Lady Salsa. In addition to this various in-roads were made into the corporate market working with local production companies.
2008 saw a return to the sea and P&O as one of the Lighting Designers for Headliners Theatre Company, nine months of short-term contracts completing successful designs followed with many a fun time thrown in for good measure. In amongst these designs time was found to work on other projects including ‘all year round’ Pantos at Butlins working with the creative team of Oddpost Entertainment, providing many an enjoyable opportunity.
2009 brought more work with Oddpost Entertainment lighting other shows at Butlins, supplying a varied and enjoyable range of shows for the children; along with the continuation of the 2008 contracts from P&O.
In 2010 a chance came along to prove that his design skills and moving light programming could still keep up with the fast paced footwork of Salsa dancers once again, touring ‘The Kings of Salsa’ round the Baltic countries; every day encountering differing lighting rigs and foreign speaking crew, a good job he’s always up for a challenge! Further tours of the ‘Kings of Salsa’ are being planned for later in the year and into 2011.
Just like Salsa dancing, Alexander’s lighting work seems to be going ‘Forward & Back’ with the fluctuations in the market as the world comes out of recession.
Alexander’s aims and long term goals are to remain in the entertainment business and to keep progressing forward with his lighting designs.
4Kandles Lighting – Bringing Light to Entertainment.