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Brilliant Stages Move Ruby Princess

Brilliant Stages once again takes to the high seas designing, building and installing sections of set for the Bill Dudley designed show ‘Once Upon A Dream' aboard the Princess Cruises Ruby Princess.

Described by Princess Cruises as "our newest jewel" with nearly 900 staterooms with private balconies and a full complement of entertainment venues, the Ruby Princess was launched in early November.

‘Once Upon A Dream' is one of a number of shows which play in repertoire during the liner's cruise schedule. Brilliant Stages' components for the set comprise of huge moving walls which frame the stage to the side and rear. The side walls each measure 6m wide x 4.1m high, and the back wall a staggering 9m wide x 4.1m high - and all are designed to move at speeds up to 0.5m per second.

The moving walls are used to transform the set into an ever-changing series of different shapes and sizes. The side walls are attached to the proscenium by hinges on which they can pivot, whilst the back wall can be tracked up and down stage to meet with the sides. Side wall angles vary throughout the show, moving from 75° to 45°, to a very shallow 30°, with the back wall coming forward to meet them, effectively creating a morphing ‘box' set.

The stage is continually closed off by the walls in every position, so Brilliant Stages built several doors into each wall to allow performers and scenery to make entrances and exits. Each side wall has two double doors and a single door whilst the back wall carries three single doors, all of which required double acting hinges to allow them to open in both directions.

Each wall is formed from a light-weight aluminium frame with high quality birch ply facings. These are painted a matt light grey and, in addition to their framing function, also act as projection surfaces onto which the scenery is projected using a Hippotizer media server from Green Hippo.

An extra challenge presented by Bill Dudley's design was to find a method by which to protect the pale-coloured surface of the projection screens during change-around phases and in storage. It was therefore decided that the light grey surfaces should be handled as little as possible to prevent fingerprints on the projection surfaces. Brilliant Stages' John Gittins and Princess Cruises' Stephen Grasset devised a solution by which the walls can be moved to a position where they can be attached to fly bars. They are then flown out of harms way with the minimum of manual handling.

With their large dimensions, each side wall weighs in at 350kg - increasing to more than 600kg with the addition of the necessary counter-weighting - with the back wall heavier still. This weight, combined with the fact they are required to move and also cope with the momentum of the ship's movement, necessitated some careful calculation when it came to counter-weighting and motion control.

The back wall is moved by means of the ship's Serapid track which can only move set up and down stage and from stage left to stage right at 90°. In order to enable it to be rotated to meet the side walls, and make the clever manoeuvres required to form the varied room shapes, Brilliant Stages designed a pivoting and linear tracking knife blade system to augment the Serapid track.

The Serapid track is controlled by an Acrobat controller from Stage Technologies, whilst the side walls are moved using Brilliant Stages own friction-drive mechanism with a control system designed specifically for them by long-term collaborators, Kinesys.

"We chose to work with Kinesys on the Ruby Princess - the first time we have collaborated on a Princess Cruises project - as we have had a lot of experience working together on larger touring sets and know we work together well on specialised projects such as this," says operations manager, John Gittins. "We are in effect designing a touring set to fit on board ship."

Both the Acrobat and Kinesys control systems are linked into the Hippotizer to ensure video content is warped to track the changing shape of the set precisely.

In accordance with Princess Cruises policy, the show is run from live cues rather than time-lines. This is partially to allow for any variations during performance but also to maintain a high level of control over the safety factor of dealing with large moving pieces of scenery.

To address the added responsibility of having a moving set aboard ship, Brilliant Stages equipped the back wall with a Safe Edge emergency stop system to prevent the back and side walls from colliding, which in turn links into the theatre's overall emergency systems.

For a second Ruby Princess show, ‘Broadway Ballroom', Brilliant Stages designed two elaborate staircases - one with a redwood finish and one ‘architectural' stair with a red rust finish - which play an integral part of the choreography of the show. Each staircase is manually moved on air castors by the dancers before being dropped back onto its framework once in position, thus securing it for the dancers' use and against any movement caused by the ship's motion.

Brilliant Stages was also responsible for creating the projection screen for the ship's cinema - an aluminium framework covered by black velour to create a blackout perimeter - which was supplied via Stage Technologies.

With their customary experienced eye, Brilliant Stages have designed each show set to be stored easily within the limited storage space available on board a cruise liner.

Brilliant Stages has been chosen by Princess Cruises for the thoroughness of the service it offers. This involves carrying out a full survey of each of the ships' theatres, including not only the available space and artistic requirements within each show, but also the exact measurements, restrictions and logistics involved in loading set on board ship, whether via crane or through passenger routes and doorways.

www.brilliantstages.com

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Brilliant Stages Move Ruby Princess

8th December 2008

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