Back to Front Gala

Okay, time for a bit of an admission.

I mentioned in a post way back when (here) that I’d be uploading a video showing a neat trick for an event happening in September.

Well, the events happened and I just didn’t switch the camera into record mode quick enough to catch it. Mea Culpa.

The event was the Back to Front Gala – an invited audience having a dinner at the theatre with the twist being that they enter at stage door, are brought through the dressing room areas to a champagne bar in a rehearsal studio, then onto stage where the tables have been set up. Before and after the food, performances take place in both the auditorium and in the fly galleries over their heads.

While I didn’t get any videos, or many pics, there was a photographer present so shots can be found at this link:

www.belindalawley.com/shoots/swgala/index.html

I’m putting the link here as there are a few photos I want to comment on and it’s easier iff’n you’ve have a gander.

Go on, click on it, I’ll just wait here. I’ve still got a broken leg – I’ll not going anywhere.

…

Had a look? Then I’ll begin. If I start lapsing into shop talk I’d add a star * to warn you to close your eyes

Firstly, we don’t normally have a bellboy in our lift – and the preponderance of purple also isn’t normal.

The lady in the jar is real (at least she said she was) as is the lady in the glass box.

Really the stage isn’t normally that purple either.

The band was in our second circle with the dancers doing a piece styled on chases on the first circle and stalls levels. *There were a few mics and we used UPJs hanging from the balcony rail along with more UPJs onstage (it really does ruin the magic as I explain things away – oh well)*

The camera couldn’t seem to cope with the stage lights at full intensity (this really becomes important later)

Yes, she is naked.

From photo 136, I’m shattering the illusion. We haven’t managed to devise solid light – sorry. That’s the camera not capturing the down lighters properly, or the precise instant that light began emitting from the lanterns. Either way, it does look good though. Lighting for this section was Paule Constable (the reminder by Lucy Carter). Sound for this bit was one Gareth Fry and was the neat trick I wanted to get a video of.

Spoiler alert and shop talk but bear with me.

There were two more UPJs hanging amongst the lighting rig *a mixture of SLs, PAR64 and 2K fresnals with scrollers, plus our MAC 500s* After the main course, the mechanical ballet commenced with lovely music coming from onstage and overhead and bars began to fly out – speakers first then the rest of the lighting bars doing the overhead stuff. These all went up gracefully to our full out height (around 21 metres). Then it goes dark and quiet. There are some odd mechanical noises, the sound of a wrench dropping, odd metallic sounds and random flashes of light all over the stage area from the grid to the deck then the sound of metal giving way as lights slowly flicker to life on the bars. A loud crunch and then the lighting bars descent.

At the maximum speed the flying system can manage.

They stopped abruptly at around 3 metres up.

The trick is to have the speakers making a ‘falling noise’ and be travelling in with the lighting bars. Trying this out earlier, it was very unnerving to be underneath them as all this descends towards you.

Apparently, during the actual dinner, none of the patrons flinched.

There was a rush to the toilets afterwards though. Too many champagne earlier maybe?

The final entertainment of the evening was the Ballet Boyz not dancing but playing a couple of tracks live from the fly floor, with pole dancer support.

I missed the actual event (the old war wounds) but it seemed to go fairly well.