Ideomeneo

Ideomeneo
Summary
Dates * - * 2024
Location New Athenaeum Theatre
Production Team
Production Manager
Stage Manager
Deputy Stage Manager [[]]
Assistant Stage Managers [[]] & [[]]
Stage Supervisor [[]]
Head of Flys/Auto Toby Cass
Stage Crew [[]]
Lighting Programmer [[ ]]
Lighting Operator [[]]
Production Electrician [[]]

Technical Stage Department

Flys/Auto

Tilting Fans and Lights

This show involved some very unique overhead challenges, the most obvious of which is the large tilting lighting ladder and fan wall.

We flew these using the 0.5t Kinesys Hoists, which landed the bottom edge on dead hung drifts/hemp while flying in, anchoring the US edge as the DS flew in further, creating the desired tilt effect. Grid panels had to be removed for the chain hoist positions however these landed directly under axes 3 & 4 of the Big Tow which initial diverts. This resulted in the auto beams having to be repositioned over the top of the open grid sections.

Due to the Fans and Ladder being on such a US/DS angle, it wiped out CW bars 19- 24, this was too large an area to not have any points for LX. We then added drop bars off the CW bars in that area that fit around the air space the auto needed to fly in and tilt. Also due to the inability to use the CW bars in this area, we flew the 'Wall Flat' on 2 bigtow winch points.

Automated Counterweight Assist

Additionally, I decided due to the low light on the flyfloor and full flyfloor masking, that the other two CWs that live fly in the show should be automated too. This hadn't been done since the BigTow winches were sat on the grid surface. Using our new SWR pulleys we diverted the lines from the initial pulley blocks across the loading gallery and down the fly-cage. We then shackled into the hard-eye of the CW hemp rope to be lifting from the same point a CW normally is lifted from. Once the CW bars we were going to automate were in a working state (in balance), we attached the auto lines to them. Then with the cradle at the flyfloor, we overweighted the cradle by 3 weights. This is because the cradle will always then want to go to the floor taking the bar OUT, and the auto lines can be used to lift it back up taking the bar IN.

Below are some images to further display the CounterWeight Assist system:

Helmet Drop Mechanism

As part of Neptune's costume, his Helmet flew in for "The Sky". This would have been very simple, until he had to receive it then walk away. To make this a clean transition we didn't want him to faf-around with unclipping something from the helmet. This is when we came up with a little solenoid release rig. Using a small 3D printed part and some eye bolts, we attached the solenoid to the rig and ran the two cores of power up the 1mm dyneema to a fly bar. It then went into a "drop system" made by Toby Cass which can controlled by his desk on the fly floor.

Images below show the system and its components:

Automation Station