Grafisch Lyceum is an independent vocational college in central Rotterdam,
Netherlands, specializing in the fields of media, design and technology. It was
founded in 1950 as a printing college and has moved with the times, now offering
over 40 different courses and programmes for creative industries … which also
includes a 3 year Technical Theatre Course.

The already excellent training facilities for the theatre course have recently been
boosted with the purchase of 20 x Robe DL4X Spots and 20 x LEDWash 300s which
are being utilized for teaching on all the course’s Lighting modules.

The 250 or so Technical Theatre students – it’s the largest such course in the
Netherlands – also benefit from being able to use the TV broadcast and recording
studios provided for those on the media and communications and music technology
courses.

Additionally, there’s a ‘live’ venue / multipurpose space available, comprising three
interconnection areas to vary the capacity, where they can set up equipment, stage
productions and gig scenarios. It’s only open for one public show a year … The rest
of the time it’s used almost daily for teaching. There are also four 4:1 scale lighting
design studio suites where real-life stages, sets, lighting, sound and video
profusions can be prepared in miniature.

Wilbo Kouwenhoven is a Technical Theatre teacher who also oversees and assesses
the learning process and how it’s delivered to the students. One of his colleagues,
Edith Molmans, was also involved in the decision to purchase the new Robe moving
lights.

They are in fact replacing some older Robe ColorSpot and ColorWash 250E that
arrived not long after the course first started 15 years ago! These were still going
strong, but the technology now is almost unrecognizable, so it was time to get
something modern and appropriate on which to teach.

They wanted LED fixtures because “LED is the future’, and selected Robe for being
“excellent all-round fixtures and an industry standard product and brand’ states
Kouwenhoven. Their great experience with the ColorSpot and ColorWash 250E ATs
underlined the brand’s general robustness and build quality.

Robe’s DL4X Spot is part of the DL range that is specifically designed for theatre
applications and this was also of great interest. Features like the two gobo wheels
and the zoom on the DL4X give plenty of scope and opportunity to get creative as
the students develop their basic and advanced lighting skills.

Kouwenhoven mentions the good working relationship with Controllux which is a big
asset, “A comprehensive product range and amazing support – which can often
really make the difference – is essential for organisations like us”.

Many students graduating from Grafisch Lyceum go on to pursue successful industry
careers, especially in theatre and TV as well as the live sector.

“We like to ensure that they have realistic expectations when they leave. It’s not all
about glamour! Being trained on relevant equipment is one side of the equation, the
other is having the communication and networking skills, being prepared to work
hard with passion and the commitment needed to move forward in the production
industry,’ concludes Kouwenhoven.