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October 2010 entertainment, presentation, communication

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MuseL&SI reports from Lancashire CCC

PLASA 2010 ReviewThe news from Earls Court

Grand AmbitionsDublin’s newest theatre

Railway ChildrenTheatre on the tracks

RDM: Alive & Well?TF gives a health-check

PLUS . . . PLASA & the future of Earls Court • Knights of Illumination • Asia’s walk on the live side30 years of Brilliant Stages • LeeFest 2010 • Green Room • Audio File • Second Fix • and more . . .

Cover:Cover 12/10/2010 12:00 Page 1

The concept of Dublin’s Grand Canal Theatre began in 1992.

It was the brainchild of Mike Adamson - now CEO of LiveNation

Ireland, but then CEO of the old ‘The Point’ (now The O2) - in

response to the frequent requests from producers of Ballet,

Operas, Drama and Musicals to stage their productions in Dublin.

At the time, a number of large-scale theatre productions werebeing successfully staged at The Point: these included Cats, The Bolshoi Ballet, Miss Saigon, Les Misérables, Phantom of theOpera, Glyndebourne Opera and Mamma Mia!. However, thedemand for theatre productions soon outstripped the weeksavailable at The Point and this begged the question - did Dublinneed a theatre that could host top international touring theatreproductions all year round?

The concept became a reality in 2003 during discussions withPeter Coyne (CEO) and Grainne Hollywood (property director) of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA). Aftersuccessfully winning an international concept competition, theDDDA appointed Daniel Libeskind - together with theatrearchitects RHWL Arts Team and Dublin based developerChartered Land - and commenced building in January 2007.

With 2,111 seats, Grand Canal has a significantly larger capacitythan any other Dublin or indeed Irish receiving Theatre. It isanticipated that in time it will establish a reputation among toptour producers as the finest receiving house in Europe and, as a result, encourage cultural tourism back to Dublin from Ireland,the UK, Europe and beyond.

So far the plan seems to be working. The Grand Canal openedon 18 March 2010 to critical acclaim with a production of SwanLake by the Russian State Ballet. From that moment on the venuehas hit the ground running and has since seen a string of popularand diverse shows in and out of its dock doors, including ChittyChitty Bang Bang, Fame, Rufus Wainwright and Derren Brown.The upcoming winter season programme will see Hairspray,Rocky Horror and The Sound of Music tour amongst many others- including Snow White on Ice.

For Arup Acoustics and Arup Theatre Consultants, tasked with provide the acoustic and technical theatre system designsrespectively, along with Arup Consulting Engineers, Dublin, the imperative was to design flexible systems that would blendseamlessly with Libeskind’s angular yet sumptuous interiorarchitecture.

Philip Heselton, project manager for the design of the theatre’stechnical performance systems for Arup Venue Consulting,elaborates: “This was a fast-track project - the ink was barely dryon the plans before the first concrete was poured! We worked inclose association with Martyn Jenkins, Live Nation’s technicalmanager for the Grand Canal project. We initially drew upoverlays of shows that were on the road at the time to ensure theycould easily tour into the new venue and designed the theatreauditorium and stage along with the technical systems tospecifically service every one. This makes Grand Canal anextremely flexible venue - as suitable for opera as it is for rock.”

In fact, Grand Canal is unusually well equipped for a receivinghouse, so what was the rationale given that most touringcompanies carry their own equipment? Michael O’Toole,managing director of Cine Electric, the local companyresponsible for the installation of the specialist lightinginfrastructure and the supply of the loose lighting equipmentexplains: “It’s a pretty broad specification that Arup provided. The idea has always been that a company coming to do a one-night show can stage it with relative speed and efficiency.”

So far that has proved to be the case. The auditorium is quite a surprise and almost a direct contrast to Libeskind’s modernist, sharp-angled exterior of glass and steel and bright,open foyers. Although the auditorium still echoes thejuxtaposition of the exterior lines and angles it also oozesopulence reminiscent of a 1930s cruise ship in a Victorian-styleproscenium arch theatre. Rich, stylish and glamorous, theauditorium offers a warm intimacy and luxurious comfort that feels strangely reassuring.

However, the period glamour belies the state-of-the-arttechnology secreted within. Sophisticated acoustic treatment,digital communications, stage and house lighting, AV and soundsystems plus a comprehensive mixture of power andcounterweight flying have been designed by Arup. A flexibleconfiguration of orchestra lifts facilitates a variable size pit andthere are more tie lines and power supplies than most companiescould find a use for.

Of course, a state-of-the-art theatre is nothing without a strongand helpful staff. Heading up the team is technical manager LukeChild, who has an extensive touring background: in fact, he canlist every receiving theatre in the UK, tell you what’s good, bad orugly about it and where the helpful and not-so-helpful crewsreside.

G R A N D A M B

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Dublin’s Grand Canal Theatre

is no ordinary receiving house.

It is the first multi-discipline

performance venue capable of

hosting full-scale touring

musicals, opera and ballet in

Ireland and it is the first ever

theatre design project of world-

renowned architect Daniel

Libeskind. It is probably better

equipped than most producing

houses in the UK and indeed

most of the receiving houses of

Europe. Sarah Rushton-Read

reports for L&SI . . .

I T I O Nwords & pictures by Sarah Rushton-Read

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Child therefore understands better than most what a good receivinghouse should be. Now he has a theatre of his own he has made ithis mission to establish it with a reputation as one of the best, mostwelcoming and helpful receiving houses in Europe. I have no doubthe will succeed.

Childs says: “I’ve toured to every theatre in the UK multiple times.Grand Canal is definitely better than anything I’ve been in yet. Set-uphere is a breeze. It takes 20 minutes to remove and store all thenecessary seats to set up the orchestra pit. The pit lift helpfully comesall the way up to stage level, which enables orchestra and sound toload straight in from the stage. This saves a huge amount of time andeffort and negates the need to negotiate large musical instrumentsand bits of kit down flights of stairs and through corridors!”

Child’s first ever job was with Martyn Jenkins - project technicalmanager for Live Nation. He says: “I have known about this space fora long time - Martyn and Arup have done a fantastic job. From myperspective there are a number of things that make this theatrepleasing to tour into. No one has to worry about rigging for a FOH rig:we have 12 motors up there that can take a ton each. Speaker clustersare easy to hang - we have special pre-made frames that clip onto themotors. There are six motors on rolling beams running up and downstage, so companies can position them anywhere they need over thestage. We also have six beams that are empty so incoming companiescan just clip their own motor to them and off they go.”

At the time of my visit, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was fitting up. Theprevious night they’d been due to finish at 10pm but to their surprisethey were finished by 5pm: it was reportedly the fastest fit-up they’veevery done.

This is less of a surprise when you see the easy get-in. Incomingcompanies simply wheel kit out of the truck and into a huge liftdesigned to take flightcases, meat-racks and wardrobe pans. It delivers direct to each of the various department levels. Each levelhas a substantial storage pocket where cases can be deposited untilthe touring company staff can distribute them to specific rooms.

Back on stage and in the auditorium and in response to Arup’sdesign, Unusual Rigging installed a comprehensive combination ofcounterweight and motorised bars and hoists. These provide a robustand adaptable stage-engineering infrastructure. Mark Priestley,project manager for Unusual, says: “We installed two Spiraliftorchestra pit lifts, which enable configurations that can accommodateboth the smaller 13- or 14-piece bands associated with musicals orthe large-scale, 65- to 90-piece opera orchestras. We also installed 62sets of counterweight flying and seven motorised bars - five of whichare in the standard LX positions. There are also two motorised barsrunning up and down stage, one each side, plus motorised forestagerigging for lighting, PA and supertitles.”

Child is delighted to have both counterweight and power flying: “To be honest we don’t really feel the pain of counterweight anywayas we have an over hauler up in the grid which allows us to easily flyany bar up to a ton in weight. We simply connect it to the bar wewant to use and it takes care of the rest. It removes a lot of thedanger associated with crew hanging off lines and feeding a bar outslowly until the weight’s taken. We’re also very lucky that we havethree cradle loading galleries - in some venues a single loadinggallery can be problem when touring anything that needs the weightadjusting as it’s flown in or out. Here you can always get to a cradleand that’s a real bonus.”

As Child mentioned previously, Unusual has fitted a flexible travellingbeam system for chain hoist secondary suspension. The entireautomated installation can be controlled from an integrated centralisedKinesys control system, which would allow the whole flying system tobe upgraded to power flying at any time. The space has been built toaccommodate the extra machinery that would be required.

From top: The opulent auditorium; two views of the stage during thefit-up from Chitty; behind the acoustically transparent ‘sail.’

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Priestley continues: “We designed,manufactured and installed a 16m x 11msafety curtain, motorised house tabs, all theseating wagons and a FOH live mixerelevator, which saves the sound guyscarrying large format and cumbersomeconsoles through the auditorium.”

Philip Heselton elaborates: “A lot of detailwent into the specification for stageengineering, as we wanted to ensure thatthe company we appointed would have theresources to deal with such a fast movingproject. We worked very closely withUnusual Rigging and it proved to be anexcellent partnership. Mike Philpott wasproject manager, with Simon Tiernan projectleader on site. Chris Johnson headed up thedesign, John Donovan did all the CAD workand Paul Taylor did some of the electronicdesign.”

Another major consideration for Arup wasthat touring sound companies would bringin large analogue desks. However, becauseof the way the auditorium was designedthere was no comfortable way of gettingthese consoles to a good live mixingposition. Heselton says: “We asked Unusualto respond to a design that specified a lift,secured to the back wall of the auditoriumon which a touring desk could be loadedfrom a space below the auditorium and

lifted to stalls level. Unusual designed smallseat wagons to allow the venue to shunt theseats onto the lift, drop them down tostorage underneath to free space for theFOH mixer position - it works very well.”

Acoustics was also an importantconsideration, Heselton discusses: “Thebrief was to design an acoustic that wasprincipally suited to amplified ‘West End’-style shows, but that also has a goodnatural acoustic for opera and otherunamplified musical theatre and danceperformances. Arup specified a mixture ofsound transparent and reflective surfacesthat blend effortlessly with the room’sarchitecture. The acoustic is sufficientlydamped to allow for high performancesound systems, yet remains warm andreverberant enough to provide a sympathetic acoustic for opera.”

Acoustically transparent expanded metalmesh sails, suspended above theauditorium, allow sound to pass into theupper heights of the room and back out.The sound reflecting surfaces, designed toreflect early sound to the audience arehidden by the sails.

Heselton continues: “Zig-zag wall shaping onthe side walls redirects sound towards thecentre of the room, ensuring clarity and a real

sense of space. Similar scale shaping on therear wall breaks up large plane surfaces toprevent reflection back to the stage.”

Ribs on the walls feature sound-transparentzones that enable side wall reflections toreach the audience at the back of the room.The balcony fronts provide sound reflectionsto seats behind and help prevent unhelpfulsound reflections back to the stage.Architectural motifs sculpted into the balconyfronts also provide high frequency scattering.

Seat undersides feature sound absorbingslots, reducing variations in the roomacoustic affected by occupancy. Thesurface mass of the wall linings werechosen to ensure that natural sound froman orchestra in the pit would be rich andwarm.

There is a variable acoustic in the surfacesin the orchestra pit, which can offerabsorption and reflection on demand. “Thisallows the room to be tuned for orchestral oramplified use,” says Heselton. “In soundabsorbing mode, it can also control noisebuild-up and create a better workingenvironment for musicians. In addition, thebalustrade between the orchestra and theaudience is adjustable, which allows thebalance of string instrument brightness tobe adjusted.”

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Cine Electric installed sophisticatedproduction lighting infrastructure; this is oneof the biggest projects the company hasdone. Michael O’Toole, managing directorof the company, says: “Up until last year wemainly did smallish installations of ETC kitinto TV studios and small venues. However,when the Grand Canal Theatre was beingplanned, we made a decision to have a goat getting some of the work, it was a big riskfor a small, family-run business like us.”

Cine is also Ireland’s main agent for ETC,Martin Professional and Avolites products,amongst others. O’Toole continues: “Wehad considerable help from Jeremy Robertsand the team at ETC. Between us we puttogether a package that won us thecontract. The help and support we got fromArup, ETC and the builder was fantastic.This is the first time we’ve installed acomplete integrated ETC lighting controlsystem into a venue.”

The lighting system offers considerableflexibility via site-wide ACN connections. In addition to the two advance bars onmotorised winches and five motorised barsover the stage there are two front-of-houselighting bridges and excellent concealedpros lighting positions. The venue can justas easily provide an adaptable house rig asit can accommodate any touring rig.

O’Toole’s team installed 425 x 3kW ETCSensor dimmers, 85 x 3kW ETC Sensorswitched non-dim modules and 44 x 5kWETC Sensor dimmers. These are controlledfrom an ETC EOS console with wirelessrigger’s remote. The working light system isthe Award-winning Blues system fromGlobal Design Solutions (GDS). ETC Unisonhas been installed to control house andwork lighting and the system includestouchscreen LCD stations and combinedpush button/fader panels. The integration ofUnison means that non-trained personnel,such as front-of-house staff, performers andcleaners, can adjust the lighting as requiredto perform their functions, without having tocall a production electrician.

The company also supplied an extensiveFOH lighting rig, which comprises variousbeam angle ETC Source Fours and RobertJuliat zoom profiles. There are also twoRobert Juliat 2.5kW Cyrano 1015 HMIfollowspots and space for at least two more.In addition, the venue holds a number ofstock luminaires from Selecon, ETC andRobert Juliat plus numerous TW1 movingheads from Martin Professional.

Theatre technician Kate Bermingham hasdesigned a conventional standard rig forvisiting companies and says she uses theETC online forums to ensure she cantroubleshoot and get the very best out ofthe system, particularly for the one nighters.

Also state-of-the-art is the sound andcommunications systems. The auditoriumhas a built-in d&b Audio Qi seriesloudspeaker system, which is concealed inopenings in the proscenium with substantialsubs at stage level. In addition there ared&b E3 delay speakers, which cover theboxes and balcony overhangs. The FOHconsole is a Midas Verona 40, with theusual array of outboard. Analogue waschosen primarily because most touringcompanies bring in their own consoles andit was felt the one-nighters were unlikely tobring in sound engineers with extensiveexperience on digital consoles.

The stage management system comprises a GDS flexible stage manager’s desk withtouch screen and an integrated GDS CueLight System. Childs is delighted with thesystem: “I’m very impressed with the GDSBlues system; the back stage looksfantastic in show mode! You get a realsense of the scale of the place in the dark.The other great thing is that we haveindividual zone control of the Blues so if wedon’t want the galleries lit we can turn themoff from the SM desk. Exit signs are alsodimmable through a DALI interface through the ETC Unison system. They can be completely faded out for black-outs and although the local fire officer took a bit of convincing to persuadehim of the benefits, he came though in theend. MD monitors can also be programmed to black out from the stagemanager’s desk.”

Since opening, Child has spent his timeconstantly gauging and reacting to theresponse of the incoming companies. “So far everyone has been hugelyimpressed. My desire is that Grand Canalquickly earns itself a world-class reputationfor its excellent technical facilities and thequality and skill level of the staff we provide.There are always going to be people I knowcoming through the door - touring theatre isa small world. I want them all to have thebest experience possible.”

Sarah Rushton-Read

Venue Staff:General manager: Stephen Faloon

Deputy general manager: Isobel Rigby

Assistant manager: Joy Russell

Technical manager: Luke Child

Theatre technicians: Kate Bermingham,Liam Fitzgerald, Greg Fairfield

Press & marketing manager:Kathy Doyle

Circle Club & hospitality manager:Denise Leahy

Group bookings manager:Roxane Keeney

Beverage & retail manager:Christine Shine

Facilities manager: Shay Bowden

Left: Philip Heselton of Arup and Michael O’Toole of Cine Electric.

Right: Luke Child.

Credits:Architect of Record:McCauley Daye O’Connell, Architects

Quantity Surveyor: Davis Langdon PKS

Joint Venture Partner:Architekt Daniel Libeskind AG

Executive Architects (Commercial):MCauley Daye O’Connell Architects

Project Management:Lafferty Project Management

Structural Engineer and M&E Engineer: ARUP Consulting Engineers, Dublin

Acoustic Consultant:ARUP Acoustics, Winchester

Venue Consultants:ARUP Theatre Consultants, Winchester

Theatre Planner:Arts Team (part of RHWL Architects)

Architectural lighting designer:Pritchard Themis

Specialist lighting installers:Cine Electric Ltd

Stage Engineering: Unusual Rigging

Sound & PA supply and installation:LSI Projects UK

Operator: LiveNation / Harry Crosbie

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