Aladdin Panto 2011

Aladdin Panto 2011
Aladdin Creative Director Alisdair Hawthorn Written by Alan McHugh Set Designer Robin Peebles Lighting Designer Alexander Ridgers Stats Venue New Athenaeum Tech Week 28th Dec '11 Performance Dates 8th - 17th Dec '11

Cast

Abanazar - Chris Fulton (Max Greig)

Aladdin - Anthony Fagan

Dame - Mark Rowley

Emperor - Martin McBride

Empress - Natalie Songer

Genie - Brian(Christopher)Fisher

Narrator A - Ruby Richardson

Narrator B - Eve Ponsonby

Princess - Amiera Darwish

So Shy - Bobby Stewart

Wishee Washee - Ross Mann

Chorus - Sam Keefe, Cliodhna McCorley, Jimin Suh, Saria Steyl, Alasdair Hankinson, Molly Vevers, Lucy Hollis, Max Greig, Martin Mcbride

Crew

Production Manager - Sandy McRobbie

Stage Manager - Sarah Wilson

Deputy Stage Manager - Hannah Nicol

Assistant Stage Managers - Amber McClelland, Jack Hirst

Lighting Designer - Alexander Ridgers

Set Designer - Robin Peebles

Sound Designer - Jonathan Towers

Production Electrician - Fraser Walker

Deputy Production Electician - Melissa MacDonald

Technical Stage Manager - Fiona Nisbet

Deputy TSM - Rebecca Coull

Lighting Operator - Jade Beatson

Sound Operator - Jonathan Towers

LX Crew - Michael Parkin

Technical Crew - Neil Foulis, Graeme Brown, Kathryn Douglas, Ashley Kerray, Christopher McIntyre, Jane Paterson, Ben Terry, Natalie Wilson, Andrew McCabe

Set

The set for Aladdin consisted of large set pieces, a lot of flying pieces and cloths. The set was mainly flying pieces, with the peking palace scene required 8 bars for the one scene (not including the reveal gauze and black).

Cloths

Cloths that were used for a number of scenes and scene changes were the US cyc, the starcloth used as a full black (and as a starcloth), and a full black for the demon cave.

Four other cloths were used as part of the cave scene; three cut border cloths and one that had a lamp shape ccut out of it, for the actors to enter the cave.

Pyramid

The pyramid was the largest piece of set during the second act, taking up half of the scene dock. It had a solid wall with a door on one side, and the other three were gauze, with the US wall being in two pieces that could slide open. During the show, 3 crew members needed to push it, unseen, DS, and disappear down a trap behind it. Cast members and crew would then go up and down the trap on their cues, finally finishing with the baddie in the pyramid and having it spun by the cast to reveal him.

Technical Challenges

Genie Trap

The first thing that was done as part of the panto fit up was to lower the genie trap into place. The first that needed done was to find where the center point of the genie trap slider would be on stage, and make a bridal on the grid above this point. We made this using beam clamps and clutch chains. A shackle was then attached to the hook of the chain hoist and a rope dropped down to lift it up and attach to the point on the bridal.

Four slings were wrapped around the lid of the genie trap as this needed to be lifted on top of the genie trap mechanism and bolted on before it was lowered into the pit.

Once the lid was bolted on, ropes were attached to the genie trap to help guide it and the chain hoist (operated from the tallescope) was used to lift the genie trap off the ground slightly. On the first attempt at lowering it down, only one piece of staging was removed, which at the time seemed enough, but whilst lowering it we found that the trap had to be moved up and down stage to fit in; so the genie trap was lifted out again and another piece was taken out.

Just before getting it into its final position, packers needed placed between the beams in the stage and the trap to make it level with the stage. In the pit, a piece of 8by4 steel deck was placed underneath it with small screw jacks, to be able to change the height of the legs so the genie trap wasn't just floating in the pit.

Flying Carpet

The flying carpet mechanism was a collaboration between the production manager and the workshop tutors, who came up with something that had the 'magical' effect that the director was looking for.

This is a basic model, that was made before the steel was bought, to make sure that the idea would work once built.

Glitter Drop

The glitter drop was made by using a piece of black cloth with slits, 3 small pulleys, 2 pieces of timber( the same width as the piece of cloth), enough black rope to go the SR end of the bar, reach the ground, and a separate piece to make a bridal. The size of the piece of black cloth should be as wide as you want to glitter drop to be. So if the width is 2m, the glitter will spread over 2m. The length of the cloth should be enough for the glitter to sit in and not fall, but we very close the the slits.

First, the black cloth had slits all along one have put into it, to make gaps for the glitter to fall out, and a piece of timber was stapled to each end to make it sturdy. I was lucky with the glitter drop that it was on the same bar as one of the kabukis, so I had 2 bars available to attach it onto.

Trap Door

About 5m US, a walk-down trap door was put in place to be used behind the pyramid. During the scene, various characters (and crew) use the trap to enter through the pyramid, and to exit through the pyramid and 'disappear'. The treads were originally made for Dracula, but can be used for any trap door position on the stage.