TSM Project 2008 - Flying Actor

Projects

Preliminary Ideas

MARY POPPINS

For my Technical Stage Management project i contemplated replicating a flying effect seen in "Mary Poppins" which i saw in the West End - the effect consisted of flying an actor across the stage then through the audience in one continuous move. I did some research into this effect and discovered that the New Atheneum Theatre does not have enough roof space to safely fly an actor across the audience and then to the "gods".

Mary Poppins Flying Across Audience

WICKED

I then looked towards the flying effect used in "Wicked" where the main character 'Elphaba' flies above the heads of the actors onstage. The effect achieves the illusion of the actor flying. After seeing a 'youtube' video on how this works it seemed like a good challenge to recreate for the stage of the New Atheneum.

How 'Elephaba' is flown in the West End musical "Wicked"

ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY

During researching the effect of "Wicked" i stumbled across a picture from the Royal Shakespeare Company's archives to which it showed an actor being suspended above the stage in a suit of armour with large red wings attached. The actor was earlier seen onstage and 3/4 of an hour later seen suspended. There was no obvious path to suspending the actor, and it was impossible to preset the actor as he had been seen onstage in a previous scene.

DOCTOR DOLITTLE

Whilst at the King's Theatre, Glasgow, i had the opportunity to watch a performance of Doctor Dolittle backstage. The show included several flying effects. The Technical Assistant Stage Manager took me over the basics on flying people in the theatre environment and, luckily for me, phoned some of his friends within the industry to find out the best way of flying and what the best companies to get in touch with are, he recommended Flying by Foy (the company Doctor Dolittle uses) and Freedom Flying. This has made me change my mind and possibly go back to the Mary Poppins idea, but slightly modified for the New Atheneum.

Bill Kenwright Ltd

Flying by Foy

Freedom Flying

STAIRWAY FROM CATS

Despite looking at many different ideas i think i have firmly "landed on my feet" and have decided to try and achieve the stairway effect from Cats - the musical. Despite Lesley Neilson (graduate 2009) already doing this effect i feel that we will both come up with different ways of achieving it. The project will include:

    (1) Achievement of effect, including:
                                        (a) durability
                                        (b) timings of equipment usage
                                        (c) technical messurements etc.
    (2) Costings, including:
                                        (a) hardware
                                        (b) hiring equipment etc.
    (3) Safety features, including:
                                        (a) riging safety
                                        (b) performance state safety
                                        (c) rescue plan etc.