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Stage Technologies get Chitty off to a Flying Start in Singapore
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang completed its final night at the Esplanade theatre in Singapore last weekend. Following 24 successful months touring the UK, the production of Chitty was loaded into a container and shipped out to Singapore in October. With just seven days to install and commission the entire show, Stage Technologies’ rental engineers worked hard to get the show’s automation system up and running.
The first containers arrived at the loading doors of the Esplanade on Sunday the October 21. With two full days of hard graft, all the equipment was unloaded and put into position backstage; the show deck was laid down with the floor-track winches already installed inside and the Performer Flying sliders were motored up into the air by chain hoists on lengths of truss. For the next three days Stage Technologies’ engineers set about commissioning the automation system. The equipment was powered up and tested; mechanical and software limits were reset to the requirements of the new venue and the Performer Flying winches were rigged with metal weights for load testing.
Stage Technologies’ project manager, Mike Savage, was on site to make sure it all ran smoothly. “The automation system comprises five floor tracks, two lifting and traversing performer flying systems, two automated sliding door panels, a four metre diameter rotating windmill, two large doors which open to reveal the Toymakers workshop and of course the flying car which itself comprises of six axes, a mixture of electric and hydraulic,” he explained. “Along with this there is a complicated hydraulic door system in the stage floor which opens to allow the car to fly, but at other times provides a flat stage for the company to perform amazing sequences such as those in the Fun Fair and Sweet Factory. In total, 11 winches are used on the show, a mixture of BigTow and MiniTow winches. The control system for the show automation required its own shipping container to transport it to Singapore, including over 5000m of electrical cable and 100m of Fibre optic cable installed and removed at each venue.”
On day six of the installation the star of the show arrived on the back of a lorry. Chitty, the magical flying car was fixed to its mechanical arm and put through its paces with all the usual checks. “The system is controlled from a front of house position using an Acrobat console running Chameleon and Visual Creator software. During the car's 'flights' all the axes to control the car are synchronised to three virtual master axes using Visual Creator to create the complex movements. At the peak of the show the control system requires 160A of power,” comments Mike Savage.
The following day the automation cues were run from start to finish, ensuring that every last detail was working perfectly. At the end of the day, Sunday October 28, the show was fully commissioned and the ‘Get In’ mission complete.
After a further five days of light focusing, sound testing and cast rehearsals, the show was ready for opening night. On Friday the November 2 the music started, the curtains opened and the stage show magic began for the largest ever touring production to visit Singapore. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang staged eight performances a week until it closed in Singapore on the 9th December. That was when the ‘Get Out’ began and the ‘Get In’ starts all over again when the show returns to the UK for another series of touring dates, starting in Bradford in February 2008.
14th December 2007
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