Intense Lighting, a rental company based in Botany, Sydney, Australia is owned and operated by founder Ian Garrard, who started it in 2017, having previously worked in a variety of other industry roles and with some high-profile theatre and performance companies.
Coming from this background, he saw a sector ripe for quality rental and dry hire products that are rider-friendly, coupled with outstanding service-focussed on the needs and demands of theatre and dance productions.
Under his leadership, Intense Lighting’s success and reputation have blossomed, and one of the ways leading the company forward has been investment in products that are innovative and offer longevity and reliability. This led him recently to Robe FOOTSIE2 Slims.
Twelve were purchased midway through 2025 to service a remount production for Queensland Ballet’s Trilogy season in Brisbane. This is a highly successful triple bill of three stand-alone short works by three acclaimed choreographers – Cathy Marston, Jack Lister, and Christopher Bruce. The season was lit by LD Matt Marshall and Director Alex Berlage.
FOOTSIE2 Slims provided a great solution for what Matt and Alex wanted in terms of a low-profile footlight luminaire, bringing all the advantages of quality LED illumination to that specific shadow-eliminating position around the front of the stage.
“FOOTSIE2 was properly designed for theatre and is a newer and better option than products we were previously using for this style of effect,” Marshall commented.
Since that first production, Intense Lighting’s FOOTSIE2 Slims have been out on a steady stream of other shows. Garrard has been aware of Robe for many years and had some experiences with the products after the company purchased 32 Spiider LED wash beams in 2021 for general stock and because they appear frequently on riders.
“Lighting designers like them a lot, the moonflower effect is great, making it more than a standard LED wash fixture, and they are one of our hardest working products,” he revealed, adding that the Spiiders are out all but three or four weeks of the year – exactly as a busy rental company would want!”
In a typical month, Intense Lighting will supply around 70 different projects of varied sizes and complexities, including dry hires and crewed productions. Garrard works alongside six full-time staff and a regular pool of around 30 freelancers.
