[SML] more theatre design thoughts...

[June Abernathy]

> On Jul 24, 2015, at 3:00 PM, stagecraft-request at theatrical.net wrote:
> 
> From: Paul Schreiner <paulschreiner42 at gmail.com>
> To: Stagecraft Mailing List <stagecraft at theatrical.net>
> Subject: Re: [SML] more theatre design thoughts...
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>>> what is your favorite theatre/performance facility, and why? Which is your
>>> least favorite, and why?


My most experience tends to be mainly with road houses that cater to large touring shows, so I’m concentrating on those. In so many places, a good crew who is familiar with their quirky or challenging space can make up for a lot of shortcomings. In general terms, for road shows, the more space backstage, the better, both in the stage house and in the auxiliary spaces. Also, the more power the better, and the more flexible and widely distributed that power can be, the better. Having stage hands who are experienced and skilled, are familiar with our type of show, and are familiar with the building is a big plus. 

Off the top of my head, my favorites list includes The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, The Wang Theater in Boston, MA, The Straz Center in Tampa, FL, The Hobby Center in Houston, TX, The Aronoff Center in Cincinnati, OH, the Fox Center in Appleton, and the Orpheum in Minneapolis. Spaces are large, loading situations are cool, storage is available, crews are great, power is plentiful, towns are interesting.


Then there are Theaters that are small and otherwise less than ideal, but whose shortcomings are generally offset by the great crews, like The National Theater in Washington DC, The Colonial Theater in Boston, MA, the Pantages in LA, and the 5th Avenue Theater in Seattle, WA.


Least favorites - most buildings have some inconvenient features, and some buildings have more than just a few. A good crew can help mitigate these issues, and the town having other redeeming features can help as well. But the least favorites that come to my mind - concentrating on the physical spaces - 

The Fox in Atlanta, which has no loading dock, and trucks must back down an alley parallel to the stage one at a time to get to the loading door which is at stage level, above truck level. So, you have to build (or hope the last guy has left) a scaffolding “dock” that can allow you to get your gear off the truck, turned 90, and sent up a ramp into the very small theater. And you have precious little space to do that in. You end up right on deck. SL is a forest of columns that you try to finagle your gear around, SR is almost nonexistent. Storage is extremely minimal. The administration and Heads of Department are in constant fear that you might scratch or scuff the Fabulous Fox interior as you attempt to hang your lights or speakers or wiggle and dangle your way through the interior architecture. FOH positions are precarious and difficult and there are no elevators FOH. Backstage, small crappy dressing rooms are on a number of floors and accessed with the world’s oldest smallest elevator. Frankly, any theater that prides itself on being “historic” is probably not on any crew member’s favorites list.

The Robinson Center in Little Rock Arkansas - Besides being small, it has a ridiculous loading situation. One truck at a time, backed up a steep driveway. Annoying and dangerous just getting gear out of the trucks. Many shows rig a chain motor to pull heavy things out of the truck and lower them back in. They have a scissor lift to raise gear from truck level up to the second floor theater, but it is not as large or as strong as modern shows would like it to be. To get to the basement, you have to go up and over the scissor lift and back down into a basement door. Stage has reasonably adequate width but very little depth, and load in is a constant round of tetris. No power to FOH lighting positions. No DMX, no transfer, no circuits. Must build scaffolding to access them. House balcony rail is a piece of 1” conduit.  Some shows have time and resources to build a more robust temporary one, most don’t. The grid is weak and scary, and last time I was there (2002) we were so concerned that we brought in a structural engineer to make sure it could handle our show. Which it barely could.

The Century II in Wichita, Kansas is in a round building. The main theater is basically, one slice of pie out of the overall building. The audience sits in the wide curved “crust end” of the pie, and the stage is up at the pointy end. The very center of the building is a freight elevator. There are many spaces and many levels in this building, which is also a convention center. There is no dock - trucks back up to big glass doors which open up at the front of the space next door  - or at least that’s how we did it, because my show rented the small theaters on either side of the main theater that we were in so that we had auxiliary space. There are no permanent chairs in these smaller spaces, so we had some floor to stage gear in. We ramped up to the small stage in the theater next door and then pushed through to our main stage space.  (It is probably possible to drive into the basement and dump trucks there and bring everything up through that center freight elevator. I hope I never find out.) The show gets shoved way DS as much as your set allows, because most shows are basically square, and this theater is a triangle. And not, frankly, a very big triangle. We had to modify our hang rather drastically, shorten some deck, shorten some trusses, and actually put our first electric truss DS of the main curtain to fit. (which, of course, not every show is able to do). The ceiling FOH is full of asbestos, and to get to the hanging points for the FOH truss, or house coves, box booms or spot booth, you crawl through a small access door up on the flyrail and follow a path made out of sheet metal laid over AC hangers to get to the ladders attached to asbestos coated walls to walk a path of sheet metal over rebar and asbestos coated ceiling. The path up is not all that clear, as alternative routes to various parts of the building are available, and wrong turns are possible. I marked my way with tabs of pink gaff tape. Up until about 2010, they made anyone who had to go into the ceiling wear a full on asbestos moon suit, but were told they don’t need to do that any more if the asbestos isn’t disturbed. Which is frankly not that comforting. To get to the pit you descend several flights of stairs to a large hallway which services the whole building, then back up a couple of flights of open stairs to the pit. Scared the musicians. Bats and crickets abound throughout the building.

The Grady Gammage Auditorium, Tempe AZ - on everyone’s least favorite venue list. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, who should have stuck to houses. University venue. A testament to form over function. The building is round, and from the air, resembles either a Wedding cake or toilet, depending on who is doing the describing. It’s most aggravating feature is that the driveways down to loading dock are curved to follow the arc of the building. Modern semi trailers cannot make this curve. So, trucks dump in the parking lot, which is typically about 6000 degrees. Hot enough for at least half the year that you have to lay out sacrificial plywood so that boxes and scenery don’t sink into the hot asphalt once they come off the truck. Everything must then be rolled down those curved driveways to the dock. Shows often use a forklift with span sets attached to heavy pieces to back them down the ramps. Then, everything has to be ramped or forked back up to the truck level dock to get into the theater. And of course, the reverse for the out. Their main power distros feature the posi-lok cam system, which absolutely no touring show has, so they have to have a pile of adapters handy.

There are other difficult spaces - I omit the Saenger in New Orleans from my formal “least favorite” list, because I haven’t been in since their recent renovation. I’d like to think that the renovations cured the tiny size, weak floors, flooding basement, plethora of rats, and other issues there, but I’m frankly skeptical. Centennial Hall in Tuscon, AZ earns a special place on *my* list because you have to pass *through* a large Air Conditioning duct to get to the coves FOH. Literally, in a little access door, and then, you’re very cold (and dark) for a minute as you close the little door and make your way across to another one on the other side, open that, climb out again and close it behind you. And the coves are covered in chicken wire, presumably to keep University kids and gear from falling out, but also preventing anyone from pulling gear up from below. So you’d better not need anything you can’t schlep through the AC duct. 

I’m sure there are tons of other deserving mentions - good and bad - that I have just spaced out at the moment.


June Abernathy
IATSE #321 (Tampa, FL)
FOH Electrician
The Lion King National Tour