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 Newbery, 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)

8 x dogleg frames. Two of these are constructed from scaff and key clamp, as we only have 6 purpose-built frames.

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. This solution enabled the platform to be the same height as the auditorium, to reduce the probability of slipping or tripping.

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 truck

At approximate dimensions of 2000x4500x6000mm, it was the largest piece within the production. It was designed so that it would fit through the dock doors with around 100mm clearance. This meant that 4+ crew members were required to move this piece with great care.

It had a large tapering floor cloth, that was attached to the front of the truck. This had to be folded with great care, to preserve the paint effect, and also to ensure that when the cloth was pulled out during a live scene change, it would unfold properly. During the performance, this was done as a live move by two actors.

The face of the giant was designed to be a live video feed of the actor's face. [info] It was imperative that this truck was moved with great care at all times, as the video setup meant that there was a projector, and very large mirror that were built into the truck.

The design was to have the arms of the giant capable of being manipulated by crew members. These were built as a joint effort by Props and Workshop. These were operated by a simple lever mechanism from the back of the truck.

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

Fleshcreep's body was required to fall in a very precise space, in front of the village houses, and behind the Dairy truck. This was a gap of around 0.6m. The dummy was rigged onto the back of one of the borders (Bar 14), using a quick release shackle. A line was then taken off the shackle, and onto the Intermediate Fly Floor (due to the height of the border). This line was then used to release the shackle, and let the dummy fall.

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)

Stage Electrician Show Cues

As panto was a very busy show the two stage electricians had several cues during the run of the show. This was mainly due to the number of trucks that needed plugged up. On the giants truck, lamps had to be re-focused during every run. Switching on the beanstalk on a cue light signal was another such cue during the run. Below is a link to one of the running lists for the show.

File:Panto LX running.pdf

Sound

Equipment lists

Microphones

1x SHURE BETA 91A

2X SHURE BETA 57C

2X SEN E604

2X SHURE SM57

2X SE300

1X AUDIX D6

1X E906

2X SHURE BETA 87

3x D.I boxes

Radio kit

10X SHURE UR1BP

5X SHURE UR4D DUAL RECEIVER

10X DPA 4066 headsets

Amps

12x D6 1x D12 3x CROWN K2

Control

1x MIDAS PRO6

2x MIDAS DL251 STAGEBOX

1X MIDAS DL371 CONROL UNIT

1X Klark Teknik DN9331 Helix Rapide GEQ

1X DIGIDESIGN 003 RACK

1X MAC TOWER FOR PLAYBACK

Loudspeakers

2x D&B E12

4x D&B E8

16x D&B E0 (NO REAR fx USED)

3x D&B QSUB

2x D&B Qi7

2x D&B MAX12

3X EAW VFR129i

Band

Keys

Reed

Flute

Kit with percussion

Bass

Guitars

Sfx

For this production many classic panto style SFX were required.

Some of the more common ones were sourced from the SFX library

and others recorded by myself and Fraser Milroy.

These included:

Thunder

Lightning crack

Giant laughing – Ahd recorded

Giant roaring - Ahd recorded (several takes) must be deep and boomy.

Neighing of horses

Galloping hooves

Rife ricochet

Cow moo – recording of actress ( do several different takes, including one longer distressed moo)

Cow laughing – recording of actress

Whispering – recording of cast ( at least 2 different takes )

Plundger like pop sound (like when you pop your finger in your mouth) – recorded.

Toilet flush

Dog/puppy single yelp.

Comedy kiss sound ( 2 )

Cock(chicken) crows

Alarmed chicken cluck

Metallic clang of barbell hitting the ground

Thunderous bang of giants hand

Giant tummy rumble.

Squawking hen

Clucking hen

Loud giants foot steps

One long section of clucking that slows down to a halt

Crash of man falling into the cludgie (toilet building)

Timber cracking

Beanstalk cracking and falling to the ground

Door slam and lock.

The Giant

For the giants voice we faced the problem of having to have both live and recorded

sections. This meant that we would have to exactly replicate the FX over the vocal

for both scenarios. This was achieved by recording clean,bright voice overs which

remained mostly un-edited. I then patched the giants v/o to its own output on Qlab

and its own specific channel, separate from other sfx playback. I then routed this

to the same onboard Pitch-shifter and reverb as the Live vocal.

This ensured a flawless transition between the two voices.