Ballet Showcase 2018

BA Modern Ballet Graduation Showcase 2018
Production Information
Performance Dates Thursday 14th - Saturday 16th June 2018
Venue New Athenaeum Theatre
Production Team
Lighting Designer Stephen Keenan
Sound Designer Ross Brodie
Production Manager Lynfryn MacKenzie
Stage Manager Laurie Sutton
Deputy Stage Manager Madeline Hanton
Assistant Stage Manager Greig Buckley
Production Electrician Dave Evans
Deputy Production Electrician Andrew Johnston
GrandMA2 Programmer Karyn Wilson
Lighting Technicians Lewis Douglas, Dale Gibb, Ronan O'Neill
Technical Stage Manager Daryl Campbell
Deputy Technical Stage Manager / Head of Flys James McQueen
Stage Technician Jessica McKay

Technical Stage Department

The set-up of the stage for this year's showcase did not differ greatly from that of years past. Four 1800 x 6000 hard maskers were hung on each side of the stage, with 1200 x 6000 returns on their offstage edge, supported by French bracing. The overhead rig consisted of three gauzes - DS (Bobinette), MS (Square), and US (Shark's Tooth) -, the House Drapes, a front black, a star cloth, and the BP screen. Due to the positioning of the LX booms just offstage, we had to take particular care with the conduit of each cloth - as giving the live flown pieces a full cloth's worth of conduit would have seen them crash into these lighting fixtures as they landed.

Two 12m soft legs were also flown just US of the second hard masker, as the fly floors on either side were clearly visible from the stalls. The onstage shackles on these hard maskers were also covered with offcuts of serge to prevent them catching light and drawing the eye.

Some of the equipment we had to prep are as follows

Flown Hard Masking 1800 x 6000 Hard Masking Flats 8

7000 Drifts 16

44m Hemp Lines 16

6000 French Braces 6

30m Hemp Lines 12

1 ton Shakles 24

Grounded Hard Masking

1400 x 6000 Hard Masking Flats 6

16000 x 8000 BP Screen 1

6000 French Braces 6

Star Cloth 1 Borrowed from Scottish Opera

Pin hinge w/ pin 24

4x20 Screws 144

110 meters of dance floor tape were used

10 meter of flame proof carpet was also purchased to lay in the wing cut to size and labelled SL/SR (please look after it)

You will also come to terms with working a washing machine during this allocation due to the towels we use to clean the floor on a regular basis

Attached is the ballet Ground plan to scale In pdf format File:Ballet 2018 Ground plan .pdf

We also had a 4 meter section of truss FOH using method of open basket rigging also in pdf format to scale File:Ballet 2018 FOH Truss .pdf

For more ballet specific information, please see entries on our House_Tabs and Dance_Floor

Flys

Due to the size of this year's showcase, it took three operators to fly the show; the Head of Flys, the ATSM, and the ASM.

Lighting

Programming Ballet

I have found that the best way to program ballet is like a gig with each piece on separate cue stacks. This is because the choreographers come in at different times with some having more than one piece at different points in the show. The show is also not tech-ed chronologically meaning if the show is programmed in one big cue stack you would have to remember the starting cue of each piece and go between them. Programming each piece on separate cue stacks i find is a lot cleaner and easier to manage. Writing a macro to take you between each piece by going to the relevant page, selecting the cue stack, turning it on and turning everything else off excluding a the page you keep your hazer, house lights etc on (fix these so they move with you as your going between pages). - Karyn Wilson

Sound

This performance contains both playback and a live orchestra. The standard Ath house system is being used in addition with four D&b E3's for fold back on stage. Two are place on scaff booms auditorium side of the pros arch, the other pair are on the mid stage LX boom. Playback was sent to all speakers where as the orchestra were just routed to come out on stage. The Pit orchestra consisted of a piano and harpsichord that were miced individually with specials (Shure SM81 & Sennheiser MD441 respectively). It also contained 8 strings players, a pair of E614's made up a Musical Director X and Y pick up with two SE 300's as outriggers.