A Christmas Carol: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 00:11, 8 December 2024
A Christmas Carol | |
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Summary | |
Dates 29 November – 6 December 2024
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Performance Course BA Performance for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Actors
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Location | |
Runtime 1 hour, 20 mins (no interval)
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Creative Team | |
Director Ramesh Meyyappan
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Sound Designer & Co-Composer Kevin Murray
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Musical Director & Co-Composer Tom Bolam
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Assistant Musical Director Emily Paterson
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Production Sound Engineer | |
Sound Desk Operator | |
Sound No. 2 |
Overview
Immerse yourself in the timeless magic of A Christmas Carol.
Charles Dickens‘ beloved tale is brought to life by students from the BA Performance for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Actors programme in a uniquely visual retelling. An unforgettable journey through Ebenezer Scrooge’s transformative night, filled with wonder, joy, terror, and the true spirit of Christmas.
A piece of visual theatre accessible to both deaf and hearing audiences.
Technical Stage Department
A Christmas Carol has been a great show to work on with lots of technical challenges specifically within the limitations of the chandler as a venue. We managed to fit in a snow drop, a retrieving line system, 2 flown signs, 5 gauzes, 4 hung lanterns, 6 hung windows, and a giant clock.
Snow Drop
The snow drop presented us with a real challenge particularly with the lack of headroom in the venue. When we were first presented with the challenge, we originally thought about Jaquis Magic Hat, however this wasn’t feasible because they wanted a long snowdrop and not one that was concentrated in one spot. So, we moved on to looking into snow bags. We looked into our stock and realised that we had snow, but all of the snow bags were ath sized bags and the holes were too big to get the desired effect from the low hight.
So, we decided we had to make our own do we got an old tab that we had previously cut up, and from that created our own personalised one.
The snow bag was hung on two 5m lengths of conduit to act as out ‘Counterweight Bars’ and one of these was attached to two hemp ropes which ran through pulleys onto the gallery, these were only used when we had to lower the snow bag as they were far too clunky to use during the show. The other piece of conduit was attached to 3 sash lines that also ran through pulleys along to the gallery, and these were the lines that were used to move the bag during the show.
If I was to do a snow drop in the chandler again, I would look into other systems for a snow drop as the snow bag worked but wasn’t the most simple and eloquent solution.
Retrieving Line System
The Retrieving Line system was originally rigged as a suitable way for us fly in Tiny Tims hat and stick, and then retrieve the props from the galleries. At first, we attempted to fly the items in centre stage using the same system we had for the signs. A simple rig using sash and pulleys. However, we quickly realised that as they were flying in behind the gauze it was not suitable for ASM’S to take the props of the lines when they flew in because they would have been very visible. So, we decided the easiest way was to collect them from the galleries. However, the pulleys were static to centre stage with no way of moving them, so we had to scrap our original rig and come up with a new plan.
The retrieving line system consisted of a tension line using black climbing rope that ran from the stage right galleries (underneath the cross bars) to stage left attached to the cross bar. Once we had tied the line of, we pulled tension using a trucker’s hitch. The next step was to put in our retrieving line. This line started SR running through a pulley and then once it reached SL, we put it through another pulley furthermore returning it back to SR and tying t off on the railing in the galleries. On the lower line of the retrieving line, we made two alpine butterfly knots giving us a suitable loop for us to attach a Maillon onto and then a swing cheek pulley was attached to the maillon, the pulley sat upside down on the tension line giving us access to move it on stage and offstage using our two retrieving lines on the galleries. Through this system we chose to place sash through the pulleys creating lines that we could fly in and out and move on and off stage however this system can be used for many other things.
The inspiration for this rig came from ‘Afterlife’ as we used a very similar method for our performer flying.
System in Use - https://youtube.com/shorts/h9EhPhGFGj4
Gauzes
Stretching the Gauze
During the fit up for this show we were tasked with stretching the gauze over the frames. A Sharkstooth Gauze was used for these. We started by laying the frame down on trestles and roughly cutting the gauze to the right size, using a pair of scissors, when doing this you need to try to stay straight to the weave of the gauze. We then roughly stappled all four corners in to hold the gauze to the frame, then working in a pair you go to opposite faces of the frame and putt tension starting from the middle and put in a staple. Then take PVA glue and run a bead down the frame and continue your way working along the frame matching the speed of your partner stapling the gauze to the frame over top of the PVA. Ensure that as you go along the lines in the weave remain in a straight line and don’t go on an angle as this will affect the final look and how well the lighting effects work. Once you have done a roughly 2m section run another bead of PVA overtop of the gauze and smooth this out with a finger or paintbrush (ensure it is thoroughly worked into the fabric as this will be what eventually holds the gauze in place). Continue this process until all the gauze is glued and stapled to the frame. Let the glue dry for a minimum of 2/3 hrs then take all the staples out and touch up any loose bits with more PVA
*Ensure that all staples are put in at an angle so that they are easier to pull out.
Making Backcloth
The director had requested that the gauze frames were also versatile to become plain black hard maskers. We decided the easiest way to do this would have a black leg directly behind the gauze that could fly in and out, giving us both a gauze and a plain black hard masker.
We did this by using a scrap full black tab that was out of use and cut it up to be the same dimensions as the gauze. We then used an eyelet punch to created holes where we put ties through and attached the leg to the relevant size of conduit. By this point we had our leg that was going behind the gauze we just needed to find a way to fly it in and out. We chose to use black sash to fly it in and out by simply attaching it to the conduit with a clove hitch and following the same rigging procedure as we did the signs.
Upon further reflection we recognised that by using just sash and pulleys we didn’t have the precision/eloquence that we would have wanted when flying it in and out and would come up with a more stable way of rigging it if we were given this brief again.
Rigging The Gauze
We secured the gauze hard maskers by having a drift on either edge of the gauze going through a grommet at the top and a ring plate at the bottom, met with a shackle that would connect the ring plate and the drift. To gain tension on the drift we chocked a sling around a bar that was directly above the gauze, a shackle was placed on the bottom of the sling which attach to a Ruitlinger which we threaded our drift through and pulled tight to tension the line therefore making a free-standing gauze frame. This method was also used to hang the clock.
System in Use - https://youtu.be/g6sB6WlBMus
Signs
The 2 signs flown in the show were both made of 6mm MDF which posed a challenge as there was no way to attach rigging to then, so we simply made holes in the top corners of the signs and threaded the sash through the holes and tied them with a bowline. These then went up through 2 pulleys at catwalk hight then across onto the galleries where they were tied on to set their in-dead then take out to their out-dead to be cleated off. This worked really well and tied in with risk assessments as the cast were all deaf or hard of hearing it was harder to warn them of imminent danger, and with this system there was zero risk of the signs flying past their in-dead.
System in Use - https://youtube.com/shorts/E6AFnQcYKk4
https://youtube.com/shorts/Exb4wS1k9VI
Running List / Fly cue Sheet
Ground Plan
Lighting
This show was designed by Mhairi Burton and the electrics department was headed by Dominic De Mountfalcon. Programming was done by Maxi Heddle on the ETC EOS Apex. The rest of the electrics department for this show was made up of Abby Wills, Phoenix Hawthorne, and Sophie Harwood.
Practicals
A Christmas Carol used four practicals. In order of appearance, these are: the backlighting and number illumination in the clock set peice, the hanging lanterns, a light up coffin, and the lantern used by the ghost of christmas past. There was also discussion of a small snowflake that would be flown in, however this was originally cut
The Clock
The clock was constructed by the Production Arts and Design department. James Gardener then added Rock2 LEDs to add inner backlight, outer backlight, and light for each individual number of the clock. This allowed a large amount of design opportunity, such as pulsing the inner and outer sections of the clock, as well as creating chases for the numbers of the clock.
The Hanging Lanterns
These large lanterns were construted from large LED candle lanterns purchased from Amazon. The exterior was salvaged, with the interior candles and glass panes removed. The replacement light made use of Rock2 RGB LEDs attached to aluminium-wrapped cardboard tubing. These were then connected to 5 pin XLR connectors using Wago's, allowing them to be connected to an LED driver. The glass was replaced with large sheets of Lee 129 to hide the electronics and difuse the source of the LEDs. In order to reduce the risk of the lanterns falling safety measures were taken. The first is that the decorative hanging ring on them was removed, and the rope they were hung by went through the lantern directly. The second was that any weight bearing attatchment point was affixed with super glue. Though superglue is not a weight bearing solution, it was determined tha the lanterns were light enough that the glue was addequate.
The Coffin
In order to make the coffin light up, Cold White LED tape was line around the inside of the coffin, about 15cm from the lip. The tape was clipped to more perfectly match the perimeter of the coffin, as well as to be connected to a 5 pin XLR connector. This allowed it to be easily connected and disconnected from the driver during show runs. Then, soft 5mm foam was put on the rim of the coffin to shield the audience from the source of the LEDs, as well as to direct the light more towards the actors face. Finally, white cloth was affixed to the coffin to diffuse the light, cover the foam and LEDs, and generally make the coffin look more presentable.
The Handheld Lantern
This smaller handheld lantern was also constructed by James Gardener. The internal construction consisted of an LED filiment, a small LiPo battery, a variable dimmer, and a button. Originally, the button was placed too low on the lantern, making it difficult to be discreetly turned on and off. The button was then moved twice, eventually ending up in the very top of the lantern. At some point during these changes, an eveloped of Lee 015 was placed around the filiment, giving a more flame like glow.
Stage Management
Sound
Three second-year BA Musical Theatre (MT) students performed in this production, utilising their vocal and instrumental talents on the French horn, mandolin, and violin. These performers, along with one BA Performance for Deaf and Hard of Hearing (HoH) actor, were equipped with DPA 4061 Lavalier microphones attached to radio transmitter packs. This setup ensured high quality audio for their carolling and a live violin performance during the Fezziwig’s Waltz scene.
The mandolin contained an internal contact microphone connected to a radio transmitter secured on its strap.
Floor mics along with a retractable QTX SG300 Shotgun Microphone were installed in the Stage Right Wings as the MT students use chains to live Foley Jacob Marley’s ghostly chains with each representing the Arms, Legs and Torso respectively.
The intricate sound design, composition and arrangements that helped bring the production to life was crafted by Kevin Murray and Musical Director Tom Bolam. They were supported by Assistant Musical Director Emily Paterson and Sound Desk Operator Cameron Peden.
Production Sound Engineer (PSE) Neal Clark oversaw the technical sound operations, ensuring all audio systems were including comms and RF were optimised and functioning at peak performance. Sound No. 2 Mary-Jane "MJ" McNally provided support, assistance with microphone setups, on-the-fly adjustments, and overseeing of the instruments during the show.
The show was designed to be bilingual as a BSL and spoken English production and equally understood by both audiences at all times. KV2 EX1.5 active subwoofers and a Concert ButtKicker behind the clock set piece where installed so the vibrations of impactful audio could be felt and heard. All carols were accompanied by a signed rendition, and all sign is clear and accompanied by strong physical performances to be understood by those who do not understand BSL. There was no spoken dialogue and limited vocalisations and signed dialogue.
There were 13 speakers overall to give the audio depth and direction.