Cabaret - The Musical

Cabaret_Logo.png
Creative Team
Director	Andrew Panton
Musical Director	David Higham
EJ Boyle]]
Set and Costume Designer	Kenneth Macleod
Lighting Designer	Grant Anderson
Production Team
Stage Manager	Sam Wright
Deputy Stage Manager	Judy Stewart
Technical Stage Manager	Rory Boyd
Depute Technical Stage Manager	Ryan Greenfield
Chief Production Electrician	Stephen Cunningham
Lighting Programmer and Operator	Neil Smith
Sound Number 1	Sean Quinn
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Venue	New Athenaeum Theatre

Cabaret is a musical based on a book written by Christopher Isherwood, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The 1966 Broadway production became a hit, inspiring numerous subsequent productions in London and New York, as well as the 1972 film by the same name.

Photos

RCS Flickr Page

Cast List

Emcee - Christopher Jordan Marshall

Cliff Bradshaw - Dimitri Griper

Ernst Ludwig - Will Kinnon

Herr Schultz - Thomas Bird

Sally Bowles - Katie Barnett Eleanor Griffiths

Fraulein Schneider - Megan McGuire

Fraulein Kost - Tabitha Thinge

Hitler Youth - Aidan MacColl

Kit Kat Kinder Rosie (2 Ladies) Mariah Parris Rudie (2 Ladies) Shannon Swan Lulu Kelsey Falconer Helga Emily Bradley Victor Duncan Brown Bobby Julian Capolei Helmut Euan Bennet Henkel Aidan MacColl Kitty Emma Mullen Hans Hannah Pauley Texas Hayley VerValin Liesel Jamie Pritchard Gretel Jillian Cunningham Frenchie Eleanor Griffiths Katie Barnett

TSM

Cabaret was a very technical show, especially during the planning and build phases. In total, there were 7 traps in the stage and forestage. These included: 1 Genie Trap, 1 Pop Up Trap, 1 Table Trap, and 4 side access traps. The front of the stage comprised of an entirely custom build section, which would house access tunnels and trap doors for the cast to enter and exit from.

Set Elements

Flown

Bar 1 - Electrokabuki

Bar 3 - 4x8 Leg

Bar 10 - Door Flat

Bar 14 - Kit Kat Klub Sign

Bar 16 - False Pros Header

Bar 21 - Full Black

Bar 22 - Painted Gauze

Bar 23 - 2 8x8 Half Tabs

Automation

In-between bars 15 + 16, an automated trapeze bar was installed to house a 5k. This was used so that the fixture could fly all the way from the grid to stage level, without seeing a large bar flying over the set and stage. An other automated bar was installed behind bar 16 (false pros header). This was due to not having enough bars in the correct places.

Bar Allocation Sheets

Bar Allocation sheets were made for the fit up, which made it easier and quicker to load bars, without having to look at the ground plans.

Masking

• 2 8x8 Half Tabs
• 4x8 Leg
• 16x8 Full Black
• 2 4x12 Legs (Hemp)
• 4 small 6ft hard maskers (For infront of void)

Kabuki

There were three Kabukis in the show. The main one was located on Bar 1, and acted as house tabs. The designer requested that Silks were used, however due to budget constraints Polylining was bought instead. I specified that it was to be eyed every 1m, and also have led shot weights located along the bottom of the cloths.

As the drop was large, and also show critical, I sourced a electrokabuki unit. These are incredibly expensive to hire from our local hire companies, so I instead asked around the local Glasgow based theatre companies. Both Scottish Ballet & Opera have one, and we got ours from the latter. They were happy to let us borrow it, however requested that we insured it while it was with us. The unit consisted of 12 single droppers, 6 A units & 6 B Units.

This system worked flawlessly, and had no issues. Incase of a drop failure, the flyman was prepared to grid the bar to loose the cloth.

There were 2 people located either side of the stage (4 in total) who pulled the cloth into the wings as quickly as possible to strike it.

An issue to note is that due to air pressure changes between FOH and Backstage, the cloth will bow and curve unto 2m US or DS. It may be worth noting to the LD not to put LX on the FOH pros bars, as during the drop it may catch...

Along with the main kabuki, there were also 2 nazi banners located above the audience FOH. These proved to be challenging, however worked flawlessly for every performance.

Due to the nature of the Ath, we could not use motors or truss for where they wanted the drops. Instead we used hemp and scaff, with some snatch blocks.

We cut the ties of the banners, and installed 3 eyelets in each at the top. We then built a standard pin drop kabuki, and tested it.

Once that worked, we added a second roll drop. The concept being: Drop 1 would be a roll drop, and would unfurl the banners over the audience. Drop 2 would occur at interval, and would release the banners to be lowered on a single line to the stage.

At interval, the TSM, DTSM & a member of crew would go FOH and kindly ask the audience to leave the front seats. This was just incase when the banners lowered, they flew slightly into them. Once done, the TSM would go on cans and cue the second drop to the operators. Once the 2nd drop was complete, the operator would then lower the kabuki cloths to stage level, where they were folded by the floor crew then taken backstage.

As they cloths were heavy, the bar tended to sway when launching the kabukis. Therefore, tension wires were installed to keep the bar steady. The units have a loud thud when firing, which added to the effect.

The banners were then laid out in the scene dock flat, so the paint did not crease and peel.

For the reset, the hemp bar would be lowered, and the rolled drops attached.

Paint Effects

The entire set was painted gloss black, which made it tricky to keep clean. Frequent mopping and shining took place to keep it nice. The paint was hard wearing, however scenic often came in between performances for touch ups. As workshop did a lot of work on stage, the resulting sawdust got everywhere. Regular hoovering proved to be effective, however was impossible to keep away completely.

As the entire stage was gloss black, it was often hard to differentiate the differences in height. The designer requested that there were no white lines, however after seeing how difficult it was to safely navigate the stage, white lines were added by scenic.