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Arena Tours Become a Reality for Musical Theatre
Stage One has announced the launch of a brand new portable flying system,
suitable for use in arenas. The introduction of this sophisticated, yet completely flexible flying system will allow, for the first time ever, the presentation of large scale touring musical productions to arena audiences, thus opening up markets that were previously inaccessible.
The system has been jointly developed by automation specialists, the UK based Stage One, and the Australian based arm of the theatrical group, The Really Useful Company Asia Pacific Pty (RUCAP) and they are delighted to bring this cutting edge technology to the industry.
"There simply aren't enough theatres capable of accommodating large scale touring musical productions," said Jim Tinsley, technical director, Stage One. He added: "This system provides the solution and could revolutionise the theatrical industry, allowing producers a much bigger choice of venues, cities and countries into which they can take these shows."
As world leaders in automation, Stage One was very well placed to turn the ideas into reality. They already own a highly respected automation system, Qmotion®, which augments the new fly system and just as that is completely flexible, so is Qmotion®. One of the main advantages of this is that the company already has winches, controls etc., thus keeping the costs down for potential clients.
Devising a specialist flying system to present musical theatre in large arenas, is something Richard Martin, an independent technical director based in Australia, and RUCAP, have been interested in for many years.
Richard said: "I have worked with Greg Gowans, who runs Stage One's recently launched Australian office, for some time, but it was conversations with him whilst working on the touring production of The Phantom of the Opera that led me to contact Stage One." He added: "I met up with Jim Tinsley in Australia in early 2007 and our mutual enthusiasm for getting a portable flying system off the ground really took off that day."
This meeting was the catalyst that propelled Richard and Jim into seriously developing their ideas for the system and in the summer of 2007 they met with RUCAP to share their progress. RUCAP were keen to put their weight behind the project and tabled the target of having a portable flying system up and running by April '09 to accommodate a new World Tour of The Phantom of the Opera.
"Really Useful is pleased to have played a part in the development of a portable flying system that will enable major musicals to play in arenas," said Tim McFarlane, managing director, of RUCAP. He continued: "Really Useful has played a key role in developing new markets for musicals in Asia and other parts of the world, but constantly comes up against either the lack of suitable theatres or their unavailability. The new system will enable shows as big as Phantom to play in arenas without forgoing any of the elements that have made these shows appealing to audiences. One of the crucial parts of the brief given to Richard Martin and Stage One was that it was essential that the system enabled shows to retain their theatrical feel, allowing presentation of full scale productions, not just concert productions."
Development of the system continued at quite a pace after that and the Stage One/RUCAP team have progressed the system to reach the point where they can now offer a fully tested, fully adaptable, portable flying system, suitable for use in any arena.
The new flying system is already generating interest in the industry and will be used for the first time on Disney's The Lion King, which is presenting in Taiwan in July and August. The configuration for this particular production provides 24 computer-controlled motorised fly lines, travelling up to two metres per second and carrying a payload of up to 500kg per fly line. Each fly line is 16 metres in length, spaced at 150mm.
29th May 2008
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