Graham Walne is a prolific British-born theatre consultant, lighting designer, author, and lecturer who has worked in Europe, the US and Australia, where he has lived since 1998.
Walne was born in Lancashire UK in 1947. His love of theatre was stimulated at an early age by attendances at Blackpool's ornate Victorian Tower Circus. He attended Accrington Grammar School where his aim to become a stage designer was indulged in his own scene workshop. During this time his large-scale models of the London Palladium Theatre[1] came to the attention of the theatre management which encouraged him to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art to be trained as a stage manager by Dorothy Tenham. He graduated in 1967.
The Palladium employed him as an electrician. Walne worked on major productions that were televised live on The London Palladium Show, a successor to Sunday Night At The London Palladium.
Walne was employed as Assistant Technical Supervisor by international lighting manufacturer Rank Strand (1970–1974), before becoming Sales Manager to Theatre Projects Services (1974). Walne had been undertaking free-lance work during these years as a lighting designer and he went fully freelance in 1975. He was the project leader, or a leading partner, in over 100 theatre consultancy projects of all types and scales, including 40 in Western Australia. Notable projects include:
Western Australia:
He has designed the lighting for over 500 productions worldwide, notable work includes:
Walne wrote over 100 articles for theatre technical publications in the US, Europe and Australia along with multiple books:
In 1987 he co-founded and chaired for ten years the Arts and Entertainment Technical Training Initiative (AETTI), the first body in the UK to deliver National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) for backstage personnel. The later AETTI restructured and delivered the first BTEC qualifications for stage technicians.[7]
He has given masterclasses on lighting and sound in Europe, the US and Australia where he lectures at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). Additionally he wrote and presented what was considered (1991) the first video on stage lighting.[8] He was made a Fellow of the Gordon Reid Foundation (Western Australia) in 1997. In 1999 Walne brought together five other theatre consultants working in Western Australia and together they founded the Institute of Independent Arts Consultants (WA), he was appointed the institute's first chairman.[9]
He is a member of the Association of Lighting Designers,[10] and of the Association of British Theatre Technicians.[11]