La Rondine

La Rondine

Creative Director Benjamin Davis Composer Giacomo Puccini Set Designer Guiseppe Belli Costume Designer Emma Belli Lighting Designer Oliver Gorman Production Team Stage Manager Oran O'Neill Deputy Stage Manager Jane Paterson Technical Stage Manager Jennifer Howes Deputy Technical Stage Manager/Head of Flys Ian Smyth Deputy Technical Stage Manager Stuart Lord Chief Production Electrician Ben Terry Deputy Production Electrician Kieran Fitzpatrick Lighting Operator and Programmer Laura Mason Lighting Crew Amy Donaldson Ross Pringle Information Venue New Athenaeum Performance Dates 10th - 15th May 2014

An Opera in 3 Acts by Giacomo Puccini. Performed 10-15th May 2014.

TSM

Technical Elements

Pros and Sky cloths

Unusually, there were very few hard clad flats within the production. The header piece for the false proscenium, and the skyscape flown piece were constructed from painted cloths that were stretched over a basic wooden frame.

Due to the size of the pieces, the cloths were painted in Scenic at SLS, but were not stretched over the frames until they arrived in Renfrew Street.

Method:

1. Bolt wooden frames together

2. Attach all flying hardware

3. Ensure frame is 'face' up

4. Carefully unfold cloth, and lay across frame face up

5. Gently spray face of cloth with warm water using pressurised sprayer. Ensure that water is lightly and evenly distributed across entire cloth.

6. Lightly tack corners of cloth using staples at an angle. These should be put into the top edge of frame. The angle will enable staples to be removed if necessary, later.

7. Start stretching cloth from centre of long sides, providing tension across frame. At least 4 people are required to achieve this. Work from centre to outside corners.

8. Repeat along short sides.

9. Finish edges by glueing canvas down and trimming excess.

After these flats were hung, we had some issues with wrinkling and puckering of the fabric. This was solved through evenly spraying the affected area with warm water. Upon drying, the wrinkles were (largely) gone!

Confetti Drop

As the DS area of the stage was very cramped, this had to be hung from 1 bar. It also needed to be operated by a performer on stage.

We found that this method of making a confetti drop was very good. Unlike the traditional method of using 2 bars and a bag between the two, we found that the amount of confetti dropped was very easily controlled, along with a very precise 'start' and 'stop' to the confetti drop.

Confetti used was a 25/25/25/10 mix of Le Maitre Chinese Confetti in Blue, Le Maitre Chinese Confetti in Red, White Paper confetti and Le Maitre Glitter confetti in Gold.

The White paper confetti was left over from Carousel 2013 and was sourced from Halo Lighting