Backstage Blog from the Production Department

24 November 2010

“Land Ahoy and Shiver me timbers” well actually just shiver, here we are the night before we cast off for our Treasure Island aboard the Hispaniola and pirate “Black Dog” (alias Marmite my Labrador, not to be outdone by the Artistic Director’s dog, Bear, is sporting his pirate bandana – available to buy in the foyer) is eagerly looking forward to the next few weeks. The cold does not worry him when he knows there is every chance at least one of the hundreds of children coming to The Watermill every day may drop a morsel of ice cream.He is possibly the only eager member of the cleaning staff at the end of the show, unlike poor Judy and co. who are about to face a finale we’ve been asked to provide described as the “Crystal maze hits Bagnor” – they’ll have to clean up the ‘treasure’ twice a day over the next 7 weeks (good job leaf blowers are on offer!).

Our show is not only a visual delight, it has been such fun to work on with a great ship’s company. I can’t remember the last time at the end of technical rehearsals after notes were given for work required before the morning, we have heard the words “so how shall we split this”, as the creative team and the production ‘bilge rats’ worked together and all finished at a decent time.

The technical fest is also good and nautical, and powered with good old fashioned Rope and String yards and yards of it are used. Below decks is a spider’s web of pulleys and knots that poor “Bosun Brics” and “Cutthroat Cat” are operating. I think they were hoping for solenoids and midi controls and all sorts of technology after the last show.

For those curious about all things technical, during Single Spies all the images and sounds were on a Mac hard drive and controlled by a programme called Qlab (there are others) which fed directly the LCD projectors with (dmx controlled flags) and via fire wire to a sound card into our amps routed to our multiple speaker outputs, bypassing our traditional mixer and programmed during the technical rehearsals on a wireless network.Those that are interested in this type of sound control can get a free download of the program (on Mac only) which will give you an idea of how the program lets you run all the multi-cue sound effects that we do (though just 2 channels without the licence). Phew, see, I can do it, though personally I’m more at home with a revox and razor blade!

Last week not only has Spend Spend Spend! been and gone but come back, and within two days of the end of the tour we were able to recycle the floor which is now providing the stage at the Oval Theatre for the London leg of Kupenga Kwa Hamlet, the show we have just had the joy of touring for the last two months.

Yes, as promised, we did also recycle Single Spies floor, Gulliver’s furniture and Hot Mikado cloths to create Bullets and Beetroot Lips. Ade, me and even Charlotte in the cast were involved in the first production, so you can’t get much greener than that. Though the production and what the company made of it was certainly fresh and new.

I would love to take this moment to thank Ceire, Sara, SDG and especially Emily who have done such a fabulous job of supplementing A.J.s (our Company Manager’s) team while we’ve been busy with so many shows out and about.

Also to wish everyone a wonderful Festive Season but take it steady we don’t want “Avast behind” gags going into the New Year!