‘Christmas at the Conservatoire’ is an annual event where musicians and the MA Musical Theatre cohort stage a concert to celebrate the festive season. This year, director Andrew Panton based the show on the idea of ‘What Christmas Means to Me’ with each of the performers telling their stories of Christmas and the good memories they had of the holidays. For this show, I was assigned to an ATSM role, assisting Fee Dalgleish as TSM to rig the necessary staging and truss components to turn the Stevenson Hall into a workable MT performance venue. This gave me the opportunity to work in another new RCS venue from any I had worked in before, which I found very interesting as it showed me all of the differences and challenges a space like this poses.
The team for this production was quite small as the crew on Brigadoon had been spit, with the other half crewing Scavengers in the Chandler. This meant that each of us was required to take on more responsibility, a challenge that I enjoyed. We began with a pre-rig, transporting the steel deck into the venue and fitting its legs. We then moved the pre existing orchestra tier forward and built the deck behind it, extending the top their to the back wall and increasing the amount of raised performance area available. Next, we transported the truss we would be using into the venue, as the truss already flying was not large enough to cope with the amount of lights that the designer wanted to hang from it, and the chain motors suspending it were not rated to hold the amount of weight required. However, after storing the truss under the steel deck, we realised that no cross-bolts had been fitted, meaning the deck could slide apart. This meant that we had to remove the truss so that these could be fitted and then replace it where it was. This was a time consuming mistake, and further showed me the importance of checking that every step of a job is complete before moving on, as you may create more hassle for yourself later on.
At the start of the rig I was assigned to work on the catwalks, cabling up the chain motors on the back and front truss sections so they could be lowered and disconnected / rigged. At first, this seemed a daunting prospect but after having a few minutes with the control system I worked out how to operate it and completed the job. Next, myself, Fee and Dave – the PM – struck the chain motors from the upstage beams as these were to be replaced with motors that could support a heavier load. This involved Dave employing rope access training and equipment, and it was interesting to watch how this was done and the necessary safety steps to ensure nothing went wrong. I was then given the task of cabling up the new chain motors so that they could be operated from stage level.
The next job was to rig two sets of blacks on stage left and stage right, flying them on hemp lines, the points of which Fee had already marked on the catwalks. Between Fee and myself we hung pulleys from the predetermined points and ran hemp lines to the ground where they were then tied off. This was tricky as we had to make sure we didn’t scrape our lines off any of the acoustic panelling or the organ as this could damage them and the integrity of the rope. Then, with the help of other crew members, we raised the blacks to ceiling level and tied them off. Fee then explained the concept of dead hanging, where the black would hang on drifts rather than lines, therefore preventing it being lowered in or slipping and falling. But, after examining it, she had determined that the lines would be the best option for this rig, which I found disappointing as I would have been interested to find out how we would have dead hung from such out of reach points.
After the blacks were hung, the last element to fly was the large wreath which had been cabled and decorated by the production electrics team. This was attached to open ended drifts fitted with bullets and shackled to the upstage truss, with the idea that – as the truss flew out – the wreath would swing upstage and hang in the desired orientation. Dave explained that this was the best way to do this as standing it up and then shackling it off could damage some of the lighting fixtures on whatever point we stood it up on. I was put in charge of the control box for the motors at this point. This was an important job as, due to the safe working loads of the beams, the weight needed to be distributed between all three motors in order to remain safe – yet one motor was slower than the other two. This proved difficult in operation, as I had to pause often to correct the distribution between the motors. However, I would have preferred to do it this way, rather than load the weight onto two points only and exceed their safe working loads – a decision my H.O.D. agreed with me on.
The show had no large set changes or operational challenges from a TSM perspective, which meant that the only thing crew were required to do during the show was throw snow during the final song – this was done from the centre catwalk with the use of buckets which we had secured using slings and caribenars. It did mean, however, that we had to wait out the whole second act on the catwalks, without phones as they were untetherable loose items and therefore unsafe. Though this was a challenging prospect at first, it was nice to get a chance to relax following a long working period and listen to the music of the show, and I ended up finding it quite calming – though I can understand why some may have become agitated.
One unexpected job I was given during the show was the task of micing the cast. As Jamie – the sound op – was suffering from a cold and didn’t want to spread it to the performers, he asked me to give the cast their mics as he’d shown me how to do it properly for Brigadoon. This was an opportunity that I believe I managed to take in my stride as, with my previous experience I had gained, I managed to execute the task quite easily. By learning something as basic as how to put mics on performers properly I was able to assist another department when they were a man down, which highlighted to me the importance of being knowledgeable in components of every technical discipline, not just your own, as it can prove useful in a production setting.
Due to the nature of the show, and the choice to run two BSL interpreted performances on the Friday, the final performance came down just after 5 o’clock, meaning we were able to strike on the same night. Once again, Fee assigned me to the catwalks, my first job being to clean up the excess confetti snow that had accumulated over the past week. This job was monotonous but, I realise, necessary as I would have hated to come into the venue and find it in the state it was in. Next to be lowered in was the front of house and upstage truss’, at which point the wreath was disconnected and laid on flight cases so it could be stripped back down. Next to go were the blacks, with Malcy on hand to show me how to wrap the hemp line around the bar in a way that I was always creating a friction dead on it, preventing it slipping or running away from me. I found this incredibly useful as trying to lower a heavy object in this way is very dangerous and could result in it slipping. Doing it this way prevents that and therefore makes what I am doing safer; and therefore me happier. Once the hemp lines were sorted and all equipment lowered back down to the floor, we re-hung the truss that was present when we entered the venue and disassembled all of the steel deck; transporting it to the Chandler dock door in preparation for its use during the opera.
Overall, I found Christmas at the Conservatoire a much more relaxed experience than Brigadoon, but one on which I was given a lot more freedom and responsibility – challenges which I enjoyed as I felt like I was trusted by my H.O.D. This allocation gave me the ability to work in a new venue and remind myself of the basics of how to strop and hang truss and operate chain motors – tasks I had only done in classroom sessions prior to that point – whilst also getting me in the mood for the festive season.