Kaspar Hauser

Kaspar Hauser Flickr Photo Set Here

Production Team

Designer: Anna Jones

Director: Freddy Wake-Walker

Company Manager: Mark Doubleday

Stage Manager: Vicky Adamczyk

Deputy Stage Manager: Anne Hamilton

Assistant Stage Manager: Dougal Gudim

Assistant Stage Manager: Ellen Porteous

Assistant Stage Manager: Juliet Kernohan

Details

Kaspar Hauser - Child of Europe Rory Boyle

Libretto by Dilys Rose

Production Information

Wonky Bars

Part of the set design required the counterweight bars to look old and broken. This was not possible to achieve using the actual counterweight bars, it would mean having to alter the fly lines etc and this would have been a very time consuming process.

In order to create the wonky bars seen on stage, the following was done:

STEP 1. 10x large scaff bars that sit behind the paint shop doors were taken out and joined together to create 5 bars that were all about the same length as a normal counterweight bar.

STEP 2. The chosen counterweight bars were then flown in and the new scaff bars were attached below using 3 clove hitches left right and middle. The middle clove hitch was adapted to include support on both sides of the scaff join. (needs image)

STEP 3. As normal, weights were added to the cradles and the bars were flown out. It was then a case of taking time with the designer to fly the bars in and out and adjusting the length of the clove hitch knot to get the desired angle.

STEP 4. The counterweights were then deaded at the heights the designer wanted.

Side LX Truss

Part of the Lx design required there to be 2 lx bars running US to DS in each wing. The challenge here was finding a way to raise any type of bar to the desired height and to do it so that whatever was holding the bars in place could take the weight of the 2 bars and all the LX on them.

It was decided to use the Ath truss for the top layer on each wing and to choke a normal scaff bar below it.

In order to raise the structure we had to use 2 different methods because we only had 2 motorised chain hoists and 2 manual hoists.

STAGE LEFT- Motorised

The follow items were taken to the grid:

2x clutch chains 2x mater links 4x 1m straps 8x 1T bow shackles

The straps where then choked using the bow shackles round the nodes of the grid and the clutch chain was suspended between them and adjusted so that the master link was suspended above the required rigging position.

A line was then dropped from the grid, the hook end of the chain was tied on and then hauled up to the grid and clipped onto the master link.

This process was done US and DS on the grid to create 2 points where the truss could now be lifted. All that was left was for LX to rig the truss and the bar on the deck, then the whole structure was hoisted to the desired height.

Wikipedia entry on Kaspar Hauser