An interview with Jamie Platt on his lighting design for “Our House” for NYMT in London

The National Youth Music Theatre (NYMT) in London has already won numerous awards for its musical theatre and musical productions. What makes it special is that the actors are all teenagers and young adults between the ages of 11 and 23 who are cast during extensive auditions. The list of famous graduates is long and ranges from Jessie J to Idris Elba and Jude Law. In the 2024 season, the NYMT performed three musicals: “Into the Woods”, “Catastrophe Bay”, and “Our House”. Three different lighting designers, who we’d like to introduce to you in a short series of interviews, were responsible for the lighting design. Our first interview is with Jamie Platt – the lighting designer of “Our House”.

Jamie, how did you find your way into the theatre industry?

Jamie Platt: As I suspect many do: I was very keen on theatre and drama at school, but really hated acting. I had a great teacher who let me design the sound and lighting for the school plays and fell in love with the backstage side of theatre. I joined youth theatre groups and became a casual technician at my local theatre, before heading to the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama to study.

What or who was your biggest influence in lighting design?

Jamie Platt: I love seeing how artists throughout the ages work with light and dark, so really it began with painters like Caravaggio and Rembrandt, but also with Sir Antony Gormley (his ‘Blind Light’ exhibition was mind-blowing) and old Queen rock concerts with hundreds and hundreds of PAR cans overhead. Once I really started understanding lighting design for theatre, I remember being fascinated by the contrast between the work of the American designers I was seeing in big-budget musicals, and the work of British designers at the Donmar and the National Theatre; people like Paule Constable, Neil Austin, Paul Pyant, and Jon Clark to name but a few.

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“The NYMT is brilliant at providing a platform for extremely talented young performers and backstage workers, whom have the same energy, passion and professionalism as those on the West End.”
Jamie Platt, lighting designer „Our house”

Your list of theatre projects is very long – is there one show that stands out the most for you?

Jamie Platt: I have very fond memories of ‘The Last Five Years’; it was the last show I made before Covid hit, and the show sat in the theatre for months gathering dust, before we were able to reopen it to an audience. It was a beautiful show, and lovingly crafted and created by all, and getting the chance to restart after lockdown gave it another special meaning. It then transferred into the West End and gave me my first West End lighting design credit.

In 2024 you created the lighting design for “Our House” for NYMT. What is special about the National Youth Music Theatre and its shows?

Jamie Platt: The NYMT is brilliant at providing a platform for extremely talented young performers and backstage workers, whom have the same energy, passion and professionalism as those on the West End, but there are young stage managers, musicians and backstage technicians who also get to learn what it’s like to work on a large musical with professional creatives.

“We collaborated on a rig design that would work best for all three shows.”
Jamie Platt, lighting designer „Our house”

©CorinneCumming

With “Our house”, “Into the woods” and “Catastrophe Bay”, the NYMT has staged three productions within a short period of time. How did the coordination with your colleagues Aaron Dootson and Bethany Gupwell go when choosing the right lighting fixtures?

Jamie Platt: We collaborated on a rig plan that would work best for all three musicals, as there was almost no time to change the rig between productions. “Our house” visits so many locations and has so many upbeat musical production numbers that the lighting rig needed to be hugely flexible.

Which Cameo fixtures do you use in which positions?

Jamie Platt: It was a comprehensive and versatile rig, with the Evos W7 forming an overhead backlight system, and the Azor SP2 Spot Profile forming the main face-light and shuttering top-light system. Additional Azor S2 Spot Moving Heads were dotted in the gaps to supplement the rig, with six of them in key 3/4 positions upstage left and right.

©CorinneCumming

Is there a fixture that impressed you the most?

Jamie Platt: The Azor SP2 was a very nice unit! The standard gobo selection worked well for the show, and combined with the animation wheel meant we could create a convincing water effect for ‘A Night Boat to Cairo’. The zoom range was also great for our studio space, and I would definitely consider the fixture in the future.

Fun fact: “Our House” currently sets the world record for most costume changes (31) for a single performer within a performance!

How do you like the PIXBAR 400 IP G2? How did they perform in your eyes?

Jamie Platt: I used the PIXBAR 400 IP G2 as both a back wall skim and as backlight through some doorways where space was tight. It excelled at both tasks and the homogenised lenses meant that even when seen from the front row, it was a good-looking fixture.