The Assumption

The Assumption
Summary
Dates 9th - 13th November
Performance Course BA Performance in BSL and English
Location Tramway
Creative Team
Director Jon Lloyd
Designer Ruth Darling
Sound Designer David Graham
Lighting Designer Lizzie Powell
AV Designer Daniel Hughes
Production Team
Production Manager Mickey Graham
Stage Manager Ruby Noble
Deputy Stage Manager Julia Daniczek
Assistant Stage Manager India Kilbride
Assistant Stage Manager Alexandra McKenna
Technical Stage Manager Ewan Sullivan
Production Electrian Ross Hunter
Production Sound Engineer Conor Brown

Overview

Technical Stage Management

The technical considerations for The Assumption, present from the first white card meeting, were a 3000mm platform US, a hanging "shard", SR/SL set elements, and a 2000mm platform CS with articulating walls/ floor. Furthermore, the show was in the Tramway which required extra consideration for transport of kit, venue specifications/ dimensions, and set build.

3000mm Platform

Originally, the platform was going to be eight sets of 8x4 steel deck all at 3000mm high with a single 3000mm tread for access/egress. Fairly immediately, that was flagged and resolved as an issue for the TSD department because we 1) don't have enough legs in stock for forty 3000mm steel deck legs, 2) wanted to avoid using an unsupported 3000mm high tread (without the ability to be fixed to the ground with the stage floor in the Tramway being concrete), and 3) doubted we could sufficiently stabilise a 3000mm high platform with that much area in its footprint. This meant reducing the amount of steel deck to five pieces and intermittently rising to 3000mm in two sections. One section at 1600mm high with three 8x4 steel decks and the other section at 3000mm high with two 8x4 steel decks. The platforms would then be accessed using two treads in stock, one at 1600mm and the other at 1400mm and sitting on the first platform. Both treads had corresponding handrails.

We originally only had three 3000mm scaffold legs for the steel deck, so a further five were bought from Actavo Hire & Sales' Glasgow Office.

In order to conform to the GCC's raised platform regulation (Section 89 form), we had to ensure that all platforms over 600mm were sufficiently stabilised. This is achieved with cross bracing. Ideally, all legs of a platforms are given "feat", which are lengths of scaffold that adjoin the legs parallel to the floor. Additionally, all legs are cross braced. This can be seen in the rendering below.

In order to mask the platform from the audience, bars and borders were provided by the Tramway and hung from the fixed grid in the venue.

Hanging Shard

The hanging shard was to hang just DS of the 3000mm platform. This meant that it had to hang from bar 13 of the Tramway's fixed grid. According to the available plan of the Tramway, the bars sit at around 6000mm. The design team didn't know where they wanted the shard to actually sit in relation to the height of the grid so the TSD department opted to use open ended drifts and adjust the height in situ. Three lengths of open ended drift at 5000mm were purchased from Rope Assemblies specifically for this show and added to the RCS stock.

SR/SL Set

All scenery was built by Pretty Scenic. The TSD department worked closely with them in order to understand how the set fit together and was to go up during fit-up. The two set pieces at the side, the library and bedroom scenery, sat 400mm off the floor and was partially on steel deck provided by the Tramway. RCS provided the 400mm legs for said steel deck. The large book flats were cut to size from Re-stock scenery stock and stood aloft with braces.

Centre Cluster

The centre platform was 2000mm high. The legs and treads for this were provided by RCS from existing stock (although some of the scaffold legging was literally pulled from the wall). The opening walls and cellar floor were built by Pretty Scenic and manually operated. Originally, the cellar floor was supposed to open with unseen. This would have only been possible by running lines right through the actors playing space and negatively effect the overall design. After an (ill thought-out) plan to counter this didn't work out, we decided to manually lift the door using a climbing strop and some karabiners. This action comprised the only show duties whereby the TSD department were expressly needed.