Pyjama Game

Pyjama Game
Summary
Dates 15th to 17th June
Performance Course Third Year BA Musical Theater
Location New Atheneum Theatre
Creative Team
Director Becky Hope Palmer
Musical Director Gavin Whitworth
Designer Lucy Herbert
Sound Designer Conor Brown
Lighting Designer Kai Fischer
Production Team
Stage Manager Ruby Noble
Deputy Stage Manager Julia Daniczek
Assistant Stage Manager Viola Fowler
Assistant Stage Manager Reegan Graham
Assistant Stage Manager Fraser Mackie
Head of Stage, Flys and Automation Kyle Jessiman
Deputy Technical Stage Manager Euan Dyer
Stage Crew Anna Athanasiadi
Stage Crew Aisha Oyedepo
Production Electrician Oliver McNally
LX Programmer Louisa Craig
Lighting Crew Lewis Brown
Lighting Crew Rhia Mitsuhashi
Sound Sound Supervisor Stuart Henderson
Sound No.1 Joseph Liddle
Production Sound Engineer Gábor Csiszér
Sound No.2/ No.3 Ewan Fraser
Sound No.2/ No.3 Scotty
Sound No.2/ No.3 Tom Sedgwick

Overview

Workers at the Sleep-Tite Pajama Factory are demanding a raise of seven and a half cents an hour but the union's demands are falling on deaf ears. Meanwhile, a romance is budding between Babe, the grievance committee head, and Sid, the new factory superintendent.

TSD

Design

The set for The Pyjama Game at first glance looked relatively simple it was one large flat with two revolves, a platform and some flowen elements. The challenges were that all the set pieces were on different angles from each other

Masking

The masking consisted of dog legs and and hard maskers. Due to the hight of the set we had to add extensions to the hard maskers. We also had a traveling border on bar one as the hight that the LD wanted would have too heigh for the front tab so it came in any tine the front tabs was in and then went out with it.

Flat and Platform

The biggest set pice was a 13m wide 5.5m tall flat that sat on an angle across the back of the stage. The flat was made of 7 pieces that were all Braced and bolted together. Within the flat there were 2 revolves and a set of boomer doors. The revolves were at either side of the flat and were used to change the set. The boomer doors were in the middle of the flat witch is were the platform sat. The platform was made from stock steal deck and had a get off on the back of the flat. There were two sets on treads on each side of the flat to give the cast access to the platform and doors.

Flys and Automation

Windows

we had three windows that were to hang above the flat on the opposite angle to it and tilting forward. We originally planed for them to each just be on hemp however we were already very tight hemp and so decided to put them on truss and motors. The was going to be more complex than usual truss and Motors as the truss was on an angle it spanned 10 CW bars but we need access to most of these. One of the motors was just through a well in the grid the other was on a bridle with a grid panel removed. When rigging the truss we brought in all the CW Bars that the truss crossed sat the truss above the CW bars flew it out and then took the CW bars out. The windows were then on rigged off strops and drifts from the truss. We did have one large problem in the windows going up in the wrong place and due to how the had been rigged It was extremely challenging to fix, as the flat was now up meaning we could only take the CW bars in to sitting just above that and then the truss sitting just above them. If I was rigging something like this again I would potentiality mark there points on the floor so it is relative to the rest of the set rather than just the truss. In order to have the windows tilting forward we originally planned on moving the grummet down further than you would usually have them this didn't work as we had planned so we just tied the grummet to the drifts rather than the drift going through them.

Below are some photos of how the truss was rigged and the windows both in there incorrect and correct position

Pyjamas

We had six rows of Pyjamas that would fly during the show originally we planed to have them all on CW bars but due to us only have two people on flys it would have meant 3 cues to get them all in/out so we decided to put two rows on automation. We looked at the possibility of slaving a CW bar but in the end decide to just make a bar from scaff. We used the Kinesys lift kits for these two just on beam claps for each bar to help spread the pick up points we made two large bridles from the chain hook to the bar. These turned out to be very bouncy and so had it been anything heavier that the pyjamas we were putting on it probably would not have worked.

Front Tab

Due the the width of the tabs and speed that they needed to fly in and out we decided to put them on automation. We used the Big Tow winches for this a -m stick of truss was put together the front borders was tied onto the top cord of truss whilst the track for the tabs was rigged on 1m drifts off the bottom cord. Due to the Front tab not being as wide as our pros we tied a leg on each side of the the tab it was the bottom of the leg was then pulled up so it matched the length of the tabs. During Tech the opening of the tabs was cut so it only flew in and out.

Hernando Sign

The Hernando Sign was originally planned to be on automation but due to the grid and flying spaces for the sign being so tight we switch it to just be on black lines as we had used all the hemp. A double purchase system was put in as the sign was heavy and could not be flown smoothly. The double purchase system just consisted of the lines being terminated in the grid going down through a pulley on the sign, back to the grid and down to be flown from fly’s.

Egal Hall Benner

The banner was Simply rigged on a dropdown bar of a counterweight This is now how it was originally planned as the designer wanted it to look like it was just hanging from two points. in order to achieve this we asked construction to build a frame to go inside the banner this however was not build so we made do with just trying two points on it up to the scaff bar.

Automation on Stage

Due to the small Crew that we had on this show we decided that moving Automation Control to onstage would make most sense it was set up in the door way to R1. The Control loom for e-cham was just dropped over fly's and the desk was moved on stage. For Kinesyes the PD-ES-T was plugged in on stage and then sat in the void the control loom then ran through the void to my control point. Having Auto control onstage was particularly nice during the fit up and strike as it meant you weren’t always running up and down from fly's when you wanted to move anything.

Points Plan

There were a lot of points in this show to the point that we used all the hemp we own and had to start using black lines.