Balm In Gilead 2017

Balm In Gilead
Production	Balm In Gilead
Performance Time
Performance Dates	Tuesday 31st October 2017 - Friday 3rd November 2017
Stats
Venue	Chandler
Creative Team
Director	Mark Thomson
Designer	Katy Meehan
Lighting Designer	Calum Dunbar
Sound Designer	Andrew Jackson
Production Team
Production Manager	Colin Bell
Stage Manager	Yvonne Carruthers
Assistant Stage Managers	Simon McEwan	Andrew Johnston
Deputy Stage Manager	Laurie Sutton
Technical Stage Manager	Heather McKennan
Deputy Technical Stage Managers	Poppy Apter	Jak Coventry
Sound No.1	Dylan Hodgson
Production Electrician	Jared Hutsby
Deputy Production Electrician	James McQueen
Lighting Programmer	Karyn Wilson

Overview

When Lanford Wilson wrote Balm in Gilead in 1965, Manhattan was not the New York we know today where only the rich could countenance actually living. He takes us to an all-night cafe populated by the desperate. Prostitutes, hustlers and heroin addicts gather nightly for company, drugs and to make a buck.

Stage Management

How to make a syringe safe for a show by Andrew Johnston

How to make a cigarette packet by Andrew Johnston

[[File:Making of cigarette packets.docx

How to make money Andrew Johnston

File:Making money.docx

Blood Bags Simon McEwan

Equipment

Clear freezer bag

Fake blood

Clear elastic bands or loom bands

Shot glass

Scissors

1: Take a freezer bag and hold it with a corner facing the bottom. Pour in 1 shot glass of fake blood.

2: Twist the bag and squeeze all of the air out so there is only blood.

3: Now take your elastic band or loom band and loop around the bottom of the twist until its completely sealed.

4: snip off the excess bag and turn bag upside down squeeze lightly to check it docent leak.

Technical Stage Management

The technical requirements of this show for TSM were very minimal. The set was static and made up of 4 flats, a bar and some tables and booths. Our main technical challenges were to lift the 6mm ply flooring on catwalks 2 & 3 and bridle through the catwalk metal grate to rig some "steel" girders which framed the set.

Removal of Catwalk Panel Procedure File:Floor Removal Process.docx

•The designer has requested that to enhance setting and aesthetic of the play that the audience should be able to see through the mesh floor on the catwalks of the Chandler Studio Theatre. This would allow any overhead cabling or rigging to be visible to the audience to help create the ‘run down’ industrial setting they would like.

• There are also two horizontal girders as part of the set design which the designer has asked to have hanging in the centre of catwalks 2 and 3. It was decided that the easiest solution to this would be to rig through the metal grate of the catwalk floors rather than trying to secure them from a point underneath or from the sides. The TSM department will be buying their own steel wire rope to hang the girders with to ensure if the wire rope comes in to contact with the metal grate and is damaged that they can be disposed of after the show run without affecting the venues stock. The wire rope will be attached to bridles that will be rigged in a way which allows the wire to pass through the metal grate without coming in to contact. If it is not possible to prevent this contact then the metal grate will have some burlap or scrap black tat secured over the section the wire is passing through to prevent any contact between them.

Removal Procedure: • All operations carried out with venue and staff supervision. • Lift carpet by rolling from the SR end. • From catwalk level with support from a technician up the tallescope unbolt the first two 6mm ply sections and kick rails. • Lift each section of the 6mm ply with corresponding kick rails starting from the SR side. • The carpet and 6mm ply will then be stored in the scene dock next to or on top of the TSM cage. The TSM department will have cleared this area prior to the catwalk floor removal.

Safety Measures: • As is compliant with RCS policy and the risk assessment for overhead work all crew members will empty pockets and use lanyards to carry tools when working on the catwalks.

Replacement Procedure: • All operations carried out with venue and staff supervision. • Return original piece of 6mm ply across the top of the mesh with original kick rails by re-bolting to the chandler catwalk structure. • Re-lay the carpet on top of the ply and fix into place.

The horizontal wooden girders sat directly underneath the catwalks and therefore required the removal of the flooring on catwalks two and three.

We used five bridles along each catwalk to pick up each of the five sections of the wooden girders. The rigging for these were as follows: 2x/ 1x (different sizes were uses) sling(s) wrapped around the catwalk attached to 2x 1t shackles on a masterlink. From here we used a turnbuckle attached to a 1m drift which went through the metal grate of the catwalk and through the top of the girder on to the flying iron at the bottom.

As the plywood wasn’t great quality, the TSM department made up wooden blocks with flying irons attached to them which we glued and screwed on to the back of the girders. Had we attached the flying iron directly to the girder itself, we ran the risk that the wood would split.

We used an M6 bolt and t-nut to attach the iron to the 18mm plywood block and used two screws to attach the iron at the bottom of the block.

Please see a plan of these blocks below.