Jack and the Beanstalk

Jack and the Beanstalk
Creative Director Alisdair Hawthorn Written by Alan McHugh Set Designer Robin Peoples Lighting Designer Oliver Gorman Sound Designer Sam Cunningham Production Team Stage Manager Natalie Wilson Technical Stage Manager Jennifer Howes Chief Production Electrician Patrick Watson Stats Venue New Athenaeum Performance Dates 7th - 13th Dec 2013

Company

Creative Team

Script Writer - Alan McHugh

Director - Alastair Hawthorn

Set & Costume Designer - Robin Peoples

Choreographer - Kerry McLellan

Musical Director - Doug Price

Lighting Designer - Oliver Gorman

Sound Designer & Operator - Sam Cunningham

Vocal Coach - Jean Sangster

Technical Team

Production Manager - Sandy McRobbie

Stage Manager- Natalie Wilson

Deputy Stage Manager - Rosie Barber

Assistant Stage Managers - Mary Crook, Chrissie Huxford

Technical Stage Manager - Jennifer Howes

Deputy Technical Stage Managers - Stuart Lord (Head Flys), Ian Smyth

Crew Supervisor - Kev Murray

Stage Crew - Riona Gilliland, Bradley Jones, Laura Mason, Kerry McAreavey, Kiri Newberry, Sean Quinn, Kirstin Rodger, Neil Smith, Daniel Thompson

Chief Production Electrician - Patrick Watson

Lighting Programmer and Operator - Elleanor Taylor

Sound No 1 - Sam Cunningham

Sound No 2 - Fraser Milroy

Video Technican - Rory Boyd

Stage Electricians - Mark Blythe, Shannon Howard

Follow Spot Ops - Stephen Cunningham, Nathalie Page

Props - April Clark, Darren Dewar, Edward Howat, Lorna Ratcliffe, Shoni Tavendale, Victoria Blackaby, Clara Fink, Zoe Kemp, Lisa Speirs

Costume - Rebecca Coyle, Helen McKnight, Nicola Russell, Ruth Walford, Carola Gudim, Evonne MacRitchie, Jade McNaughton, Sophie Prior

Construction - Connor Gallagher, Robert Gear, Lauren Keanie, Oliver Ralph

Scenic - Rosie Jacob, Carolyn Clark, Iona Gray, Gillian Reilly

Technical Stage Management

Flyplot

Due to the size of the LX bars, it was necessary to brail a number of the bars.

Masking

7x 12x4 soft legs

1x 8x4 soft leg (Necessitated by a missing 12x4 leg)

Pit Bridge

In previous performances which require the use of a pit bridge, there had been a number of various solutions to this problem.

For this show, it was felt that a stock platform, with stock treads should be built. This could then be customised with different height legs.

Technical Challenges

Beanstalk

A crucial element of any production of 'Jack and the Beanstalk' is not complete without a beanstalk... This year, our beanstalk was provided by the Designer, Robin Peoples. It consisted of a fan unit, with a large section of rip-stop fabric attached to the top, forming the 'beanstalk' element.

As we were concerned about the amount of noise the fan would produce if it were to be onstage, we sited the fan unit in the pit. One of the pallets in the stage floor was removed, and replaced with a trap unit.

As the beanstalk was of fabric construction, we used a spot line attached to the top, to prevent it flapping around the stage on inflation and deflation. Although a line of hemp was used to go from the flyfloor, through the grid, fishing line was used wherever the line would be visible. This was felt to be strong, but also relatively invisible.

After tech, it was felt that the Beanstalk was too short. Therefore it was extended with a small section of green rip-stop fabric, bought from Mandors. Whilst this wasn't visible in Act 1, due to the beanstalk being hidden behind the Cludgy truck. However, in Act 2, the bottom of the beanstalk was visible due to the absence of the Cludgy. It was felt that this was an acceptable trade off.

Beanstalk inflation sequence

Giant's foot

A slightly incongruous set element. This was not part of the original design, but only an idea. It was borrowed from the Lyceum in Edinburgh. Therefore, it was a very awkward set piece; one that didn't really fit the design of the show, or the size of the venue. It was used when The Giant was required to 'squash' Fleshcreep'.

In the latter part of the production process, it was discovered that all the foot was required to do be slid onto the stage, and then be removed a little while later. This took 3 crew members to operate. Whilst the foot was relatively light (being made of Arex), it's large size and the placement of the booms made this process a little awkward.

Fleshcreep's Dummy

Quick release shackle used for drop.

Portcullis

This was a relatively large set element, and one that was pivotal to the plot. It was required to open and shut relatively quickly, such as your average Castle Portcullis would operate.

Confetti Drop

White confetti was used during the walk down scene. The white paper confetti that was dropped was spare that was left over from Carousel 2013.

It was dropped by using the traditional snow/confetti/petal drop bag. This was rigged onto Bars 9 and 10.

Electrics

Video

One of the biggest challenges for electrics was creating the giant effect. It was decided by the designer this would be done by projection with a live feed of a giant (offstage in a studio). Due to budget constraints we were unable to hire a 7-10k projector to project from a downstage bar onto the set piece therefore it was decided the best method would be to mount the in-house 5k projector to the rear of the set piece, then using a combination of two mirrors bounce to the screen. This meant that even if the set piece managed to somehow move off its marks the projection would never be misaligned.

Control

For control we managed to secure a borrow Hippotizer Grasshopper media server combined with a Black Magic capture card from AC Entertainment Technologies to use as a control surface from the camera to the projector. This proved to be a valuable tool as we were able to manipulate the output to mask the overspill but also stretch the face to cover the screen.

The Studio

The studio consisted of the following items:

• Sony HD DV Camera (With BNC output)
• 2 1.2K PC's
• TV Monitor with onstage preview
• Wooden board with face cutout (to restrict movement of the actor so his face would not go out of shot)