Snow Queen

The Snow Queen
Summary
Dates 8th - 16th December 2016
Performance Course Third Year BA Acting
Location New Atheneum Theatre
Creative Team
Director Douglas Irvine
Designer Robin Peoples
Sound Designer Calum Paterson
Lighting Designer Kieran Kenning
Production Team
Stage Manager Miranda Stewart
Deputy Stage Manager Valentino Fabbreschi
Assistant Stage Manager Rebecca Bell
Assistant Stage Manager Louise Charity
Technical Stage Manager Stuart Leech
Head of Flys Yesha Subotincic West
Deputy Technical Stage Manager Dimitri Grant
Production Electrician Matthew Turnbull
Deputy Production Electrician Euan Odd
Lighting Programmer Gary Ashbridge
Technical Crew
Poppy Apter
Dylan Hodgson
Allan Hamilton
Ross Brodie
Jak Coventry
Karyn Wilson
Craig Stevenson
Regan Kelly
Andrew Johnstone
James Hamilton
Adlai Faigen

The Snow Queen

In 2016, RCS broke all traditions, and decided to put on a Winter Show rather than a Pantomime. This production was The Snow Queen...

'A fun, thrilling and magical adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s wintery tale. The Snow Queen has cast a spell on Kay - freezing his heart and stealing him away to her Ice Palace - all part of her wicked plan to turn the world into winter. But young Gerda has different ideas and undertakes a daring quest to rescue both Kay and the world from the Snow Queen’s icy grip.'

The Production Team

Our wonderful production team!

Stage Management

The Team

Props Lists

Here is version one of the props list...

We then switched over to using our whiteboard in the office over a digitalised copy as it changed so often that as a team we found it much simpler and more satisfying to use a physical large copy...

Specific Props...

Timothy the Fish

Drawstring Bags

Maisy the Bear

Fire

After discussions with the director and designer, the following parameters were determined for the fire;

- It needed to be at least the width of the trap (700mm)

- It needed to be in a container that looked like it was carried around by The Robber Girl for the purpose of creating fire

- It needed to burn for the length of the scene it featured in - around 7 minutes

- It needed to be tall enough that it looked like a small campfire

- It needed to be able to both light and extinguish instantly

A number of different options were looked into for the fire - initially flame paste] was considered but due to the number of shows, the width of the fire and the length of time the fire needed to burn for, it was quickly decided this option was too expensive.

Following this, we purchased fuel tablets]. They seemed like a good option as they are designed for starting campfires, they do not liquefy when burning and they (in theory) light easily. Unfortunately, when tested, they provided a very small flame - only a couple of inches tall, and only the width of the tablet. A demonstration of the fuel tablets can be found here] (with the wind helping the flame along quite a lot). This was not anywhere close to the desired effect and we quickly realised we would need to come up with a new method.

We then looked into Easylogs] which are logs filled with combustible material which light very quickly, are virtually smokeless and burn for up to two hours. We used this with a small amount of flame paste on top to help it light quicker. This was very effective and created the effect we needed.

However, using this method we discovered two issues...

The first being that the metal galvanised planter] we bought to keep the fire in was not as heatproof as expected, and buckled under the heat of the fire meaning we could not use it. In order to tackle this, a purpose built steel container was created, with a trough inside it for the flame paste. The container was on small legs to ensure there was room for oxygen under the container and to prevent the container burning the floor. A lid was also made to accompany this for instant extinguishing of the flame, and welding gloves were provided for removing the container from the stage after the flame scene was complete.

Secondly, we also discovered that it was impossible to know for sure what material was contained inside the log, rendering it unsafe and an unusable method for creating our fire onstage.

After more research and discussion, it was agreed that we could have the budget to buy the flame paste in order to ensure the flame would be consistent in all respects every night. The costings for this were based on estimations provided by Le Maitre, and the breakdown of this can be found below...

Unfortunately, this was far too much flame paste, and we only used 375ml per show... Oops.

Health and Safety

For The Snow Queen, the stage management department took responsibility for the safety and risk assessments of...

- The 'Showsnow' on the floor

- The flame

- Performers in the aisle

- Performer and crew slips, trips and falls

- Performers in socks

- Performers in the tip over box

As well as the performers on each of the trucks;

- Performers walking on the tree trucks

- Performers on the cart truck

- Performers on the castle truck

- Performers on the throne truck

- Performers on the house truck

Risk assessing the trucks was challenging as they were all purpose built meaning they did not come with any solid safety documentation - a lot of the safety limitations of the trucks was discovered through trial and error with the blocking. To work out the boundaries of the trucks, stage management did their fair share of playing on them to work out what felt safe and what didn't... As well as collaborating with the Technical Stage Department and the Construction department, of course.

The RA for the flame can be found below :)

Finance

The Stage Management department had a £600 budget for The Snow Queen. £200 of this contributed to the cost of the flame paste, leaving us with £400 for everything else. The budget reconciliation can be found below...

Stage Department

The Team

The Technical Stage Department team consisted of;

Stuart Leech (Head of Stage) Dimitri Grant (Depute Head of Stage)

Yesha Subontincic West (Head of Flys) First Years (Crew)

Tracking, Trees, Trucks & Carts

The House

The Castle

The Tree's

The Cart

The Throne

This is the end

Genie Trap

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGMRda7e02I

Side Masking

Equipment

Counter Weight Plinth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhyfHs7SbNM

Vectorworks Project Sharing

In the early design process of Snow Queen the stage department discussed an idea of using a sharing based platform which would allow multiple user to feed into a single Vectorworks file. Initially we discussed sharing a single file on a cloud based server, however this was quickly ruled out due to multiple issues around access and version numbers.

We began to look at Vectorworks Project Sharing.

This feature allows users who have permission to access the file in the cloud (in our case Dropbox) to simultaneously edit different aspects of the same drawing. Different permission levels are granted by the administrator of the shared file, in turn allowing different users to edit different things.

By default, when the Project File: Snow_Queen_Master.vwxp, you will see that the file that actually opens on your computer is Snow_Queen_Master_yourusername.vwxw. This file is your Working File and is to be stored locally on your machine. It is where you are to make all changes and edits. As an added level of security the default permission for any user opening the Project File for the first time is ‘Read Only.’ Once the user has saved the Working File locally on their machine the administrator can edit the permission of that user to the appropriate one and then the user can begin editing.

The way Project Sharing in Vectorworks 2017 works is that each user can check-out one or multiple layers and edit them. When these layers are checked-out only the user that has checked them out can edit them. When the user wants to make the changes visible to others in the shared Project File, they need to Save and Commit their changes. This is done by going to File- Save and Commit. The user still has the layer or layers checked out. To release the layers, go to File- Close and Release.

IMPORTANT: If you have not Saved and Committed before Closing and Releasing, changes will not be saved, you will lose all work. Closing and releasing also closes the file.

More information can be found on the Vectorworks Project Sharing page: http://www.vectorworks.net/products/features/project-sharing

Plans

Snow Drop

The Snow drop was built for The Snow Queen the 2016 christmas show. It required snow to fall across the span of the Ath stage for a couple minutes. the budget did not stretch to hire proper snow drops and we could not use "bubble snow" due to the floor and set not being able to take it. The idea was to build a snow roller using plastic pipe in workshop. This project was taken on by Stuart Leech TSM, Dimitri Grant DTSM and Yesha Subotincic West Head of Flys.

The Drop was too heavy to move smoothly from Fly Floor so the lines were instead to a counterweight bar (bar 14) with 5 weights in the cradle. The operation was therefore done by moving a bar in and out rather than pulling hemp lines.

After the end of the tech the roller was switched out for a snow bag with the same rig and operation. The reason for this being that the time did not exist to perfect the snow fall from the roller. Given more time the roller would have been used.

Further Information information regarding the Snow Drop can be found here Snow Drop.

Automation

Similar to Dick McWhittington and The Neil Smith, Single Winch, Dual Lift Ladder Divert System™ Snow Queen required lighting ladders to move in show for truck to go on and off stage.

In times of old The Great Warlock Himself, Neil McDowell Frodo Skywalker Smith, wielded the great and awesome powers of ascension to bring light to the stage of Panto. Like the gilded war heroes before them a new generation of warriors set out to follow and albeit different path to shine light upon a dark and troubled world. They opted for the upstage ladders (hung off truss) to be suspended above the abyss of what is the New Atheneum Stage by not 1, not 3 but 2 automation points. Each span of truss was a 3m section and a 1m section. Stage right used automation winches 2 and 4 and stage left used points 1 and 3. To monitor the oppressing weight of darkness and lights hanging on the truss, each automation line also had Elven made load cells attached.

Looketh below and find the scroll that shows the states of automation used in this Great Show.

---

Lighting

Title Of Something

And Some Information

Lalala

Sound

Title Of Something

And Some Information

Lalala

Photos

A selection of photos of the build and production period of Snow Queen

Further photos can be found at...

RCS Flickr]

Scenic Social Media]

Workshop Social Media]