Macbeth 2013
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Macbeth
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Production Team
- Production Manager - Sandy McRobbie (staff)
- Stage Manager - Dougal Gudim
- Deputy Stage Manager - Oran O'Neill
- Assistant Stage Managers - Jane Paterson
- Technical Stage Manager - Rebecca Coull
- Production Electrician - Michael Parkin
- Deputy Production Electrician - Oliver Gorman
- Lighting Operator - Sam Cunningham
Technical Stage Management
Kabuki Drops
US Triple Kabuki
Upstage kabuki, rigged off US Bar of US lx catwalk, made up of one bag with three cloths which drop simultaneously.
Equipment List
3m plank of wood
3x0.75m black carpet strip
X3 Kabuki cloths (cut to roughly 4.8m long to reach floor)
9 pins (from pin hinge)
18 small screw eyes
4 large screw eyes
2 short pieces of sash
1 long length of sash
3 small single pulleys
Cable ties
Staples
Building Instructions
To make the kabuki bags the strip of carpet is stapled onto the plank of wood. Small screw eyes are screwed in pairs roughly every 0.5m on the opposite side from the stapled carpet. Large screw eyes are placed one at each end of the plank on top of the plank (these will be used to secure the kabuki to the bar with short lengths of sash), the second two are placed between the pins to hold the line in place (ensuring separated enough to allow the pins to pull out fully). 5 holes (evenly spaced) should be then drilled into the plank to put cable ties through when rigging.
The 3 Kabuki cloths (we used the red drapes from Dracula – November 2012 – cut to length and cut in half) are stapled along the bottom edge on the same side as the small screw eyes at regular intervals.
Pins are then slotted into each pair of screw eyes and each pin tied to the next with one long length of sash (the sash should also be threaded through the 2 large screw eyes), the line should be fairly tight between pins and the end should be tied off to one of the large screw eyes at the end of the plank (with plenty of slack to allow the pins to come loose when the line is pulled).
The cloths was then folded west coast style and the carpet “bag” folded over the cloths, holes are then made in the bottom edge of the carpet to line up between pairs of screw eyes for the pin to go through to hold the bag shut.
The whole contraption is then cable-tied to the bar and tied off (from the screw eyes on either end) with short lengths of sash as a safety. The loose end of the line is then fed through 3 small single pulleys also cable tied (cable ties doubled up for security) along the bars of the catwalk and the lines run in though the door to the control booth. When the line is pulled, the pins will pull out, the bag drop open and the cloths will fall to hang like banners.
DS Double Kabuki
DS kabuki, rigged of DS bar of US catwalk, made up of two separate bags each with one cloth in them, SL and SR. They are operated by one line which when pulled causes both bags to fall open and the cloths to drop simultaneously.
Equipment
x2 lengths of wood 1m
x2 1x0.75m strips of black carpet
x2 kabuki cloths
x6 pins
x12 small screw eyes
x4 large screw eyes
x4 short pieces of sash
1 long length of sash
5 small pulleys
Cable ties
Staples
Building instructions
See instructions for US triple kabuki; this is simply two smaller versions, each with 3 pins rather than a total of nine. The challenge with this was rigging the pins off the one sash length and keeping the tension with a gap of roughly 4m between the two contraptions. I used 3 small single pulleys between the two and only tied the sash and the pins after rigging as it would have been very difficult to get the tension right on the ground.
Notes
- Cheap black carpet was used initially as there was not enough black tat available. However the carpet does have rigidity and a natural curl to it which made resetting during the interval and finding the pin holes in the dark easier.
- I rigged the kabuki’s so when the bags fell open they sat in front of the cloths creating a sort of border and hiding to an extent the lines and pins from the audience.
- The kabuki’s were required to be reset during the interval from the US catwalk, a risk assessment was written whereby the stage could be reset below whilst a person was working on the US catwalk and an Usher was on duty to ensure that no audience member strayed below the catwalk.