Dialogues des Carmélites 2020

Dialogues des Carmélites 2020
Summary
Location New Athenaeum Theatre
Creative Team
Director Matthew Eberhardt
Set & Costume Designer Justin Nardella
Lighting Designer Peter Goddard
Sound Designer Stuart Henderson
Production Team
Production Manager Kevin Murray
Stage Manager Jessica McKay
Deputy Stage Manager Fiona Elliott
Assistant Stage Managers Nele Hähnsen, Coral Nelson, Alexandra McKenna, India Kilbride
Production Electrician Matthew Craigen
Lighting Programmer Rhys Gaughan
Head Of Stage Sean Ramsay
Head of Automation and Flys Darren Wilson
Deputy Stage Supervisor Noah Dates
Stage Technician Kyle Jessiman

Stage Department

The Team

Head Of Stage Sean Ramsay

Head Of Flys and Automation Darren Wilson

Deputy Head Of Stage Noah Dates

Stage Technician Kyle Jessiman

Weekly Break Down

To help show each member of the team the tasks to be completed and when a document was produced by the Head Of Stage detailing all the activities and would be carrying them out. This would also help with tracking our progress over the fit up to see how we were working with the available time.

Ground Plan

Sliding Front Cloth There was two front cloths for this show one that would fly up and down and another that would slide with a center stage split. The sliding cloth would have a hard masker as a leading edge so using one track we had to make sure that when it was full open the maskers were off stage. All the components that would be used to make this work were drawn up and added to a vectorworks drawing to give an accurate representation of what would be put up on the stage.

Sliding Back Wall There was a sliding back wall panel that to track Stage Left in the middle of Act 3 as discreetly as possible. The wall would be set up in a dead hang system with our Flyman as the operator. Using a series of pulleys, the lines would be diverted to the Flyfloor for our Flyman to pull down. This would trigger a weight bag that we have put below the ladder on Stage Left to lower and pull the wall panel with it. The panel will be tracked and there will be a guide attached to it at the top. he guide will be a wire rope tensioned across two of the pillars on the back wall with a tirfor winch. The wall will be attached to this guide using a screw eye that will be placed in the top of the wall panel. The Vectorworks drawing that compliments this description has been added for perusal, giving a concise representation of what we would have built onstage.

Equipment

Two kit lists were produced for the stage department for this show, One of them was for flys and automation with the other for the stage. Having two lists helped to split up who was needing what equipment and also saved issues if we both tried to makes updates at the same time. The lists have been broken down into section that they should be prepped as and labelled making it easier when fitting up on the stage.

Health And Safety

Pre Show Checks

With all 4 team members having different tasks during the pre show time everyone had a different list with all moving aspects of the show needing checked fully. Meaning all revolve cues would be run daily before each show to test it as it would be run but also for the operator to get the feel of the control. We also needed to check all flying and automation pieces along with the sliding back wall panel and the various parts to that.

Flys & Automation

Head of Flys & Automation Darren Wilson

The show has very little flown aspects to it, with the majority of counterweight bars being used for the LX overhead rig. The only flown element during the show is a Full Black downstage.

As part of the LX design it was requested that there be a truss flown above the revolve, due to the size of the required truss it was decided the truss should be flown on 4 Big Tow winches as the truss was too small to drop chain hoist points down the grid wells and we wanted to avoid removing grid panels and bridles. The LX truss had to be dead hung from a mother grid (with the mother grid being flown on the Big Tow winches) as we couldn't get the 2 downstage points of the LX truss with the winches due to the no fly zones. Above the Mother Grid there will be a Counterweight bar that will be attached to the LX truss with a drift and some half couplers with eye bolts, this is for the cable run, 2 extra weights will be put in the cradle and the brake will be let off to allow the bar to run in and out when the LX truss moves on automation.

There is a 16.5m truss span downstage that holds the track for the sliding masking. The truss is rigged on 4 Loadgaurd chain motors and is strapped of the fly floors.

There is also a 5m FOH truss rigged of catwalk 1.

Stage Management

The team

Stage Manager: Jessica McKay

Deputy Stage Manager: Fiona Elliott

Senior Assistant Stage Manager: Nele Hähnsen

Assistant Stage Manager: Alexandra McKenna

Assistant Stage Manager: Coral Nelson

Assistant Stage Manager: India Kilbride

The work of the department was based around this RCS’s production (mainly for the sourcing of props and creating risk assessments) and a DVD recording of a different production (blocking, cueing, entrances and exits plots, setting- and running lists). More detail will be given on the RCS production, but example of documents created from the DVD can be found below.

Props

Most of the props could be sourced from RCS's own props store or with the help of NTS and Scottish Opera. Church items such as thuribels were previously borrowed for Glory on Earth, so could hopefully be used again. A lot of the church props would makes by the props department anyway. A lot of time was spent trying to think of different ways to make and source things instead of just jumping on the first link and buying it. An example for thinking outside the box, is How To Make A Fake Brick. Instead of buying a brick or a fake brick, the ASM thought about ways to make one that could be thrown safely while still being safe and made a mock-up of their idea with what they had laying around the house.

Risk Assessments

This was a fairly low-risk production with the main risk being the revolve. Other risk assessments were written for food an liquid, glassware and naked flame.

(INSERT RISK ASSESSMENTS HERE JESS)

Other documents

The ASM's were tasked with creating props tracking documents as can be seen below:

These documents were helpful when later on creating the virtual propsshelves for stage right and stage left:

The third year ASM gave a score reading class and created a paperclip page on Setting up a score for Opera before all of the ASM’s tried cueing the singers on. Information on who would enter when and where can be found on the entrance and exit plot.

Sound

Sound requirements for this show were somewhat small. Foldback for playback from the pit was required. There were 2 bars on stage for foldback – CW 22 and CW 7 with two D&B E3’s on each bar. (See Plan).

As for comms and cameras in this show a camera was going to be positioned on bar 15, centre stage, to show the automation operator a birds eye view of the revolve. There would have also been a maestro camera positioned in the pit being sent to the DSM and any other areas BS with extra monitors being rigged if required.

A quote for wireless comms was got from the warehouse. The hire period was from 04/05/2020 To - 25/05/2020 for the FreeSpeak II 5 Beltpack Kit.

A small amount of micing would have been required from the pit for the foldback on stage. There would have been 2 mics – one left and one right – of the maestro, rigged on hex clamps and a discussion would have been had with the maestro about whether or not further micing would have been necessary on other instruments.

Lighting

Design

LX Design key features include the 3m BP screen in the crossover, which was to be backlit as a blinder,LED tape overlaying the 'cross' in the chapel structure, and the Truss grid suspended centre over the revolve. This was to account for any rotation of the revolve, and even if FOH/side positions would not reach we could still light the interior of the revolve.