There Will Be Walls: Week of September 4th, 2011

We're off to a very solid start, both figuratively and literally.

The figurative: 25 people came in during Set Saturday #1 - a tremendous showing! All of the directors are deliriously happy with the intrest that this show is getting from a technical stand point. Keep up the good work!

The literal: We completed the large goal of the day - building the solid deck support needed for the plant shop set. We built 7 individual stock size platforms and 2 custom platforms, attached legs, and connected them together, and then sheathed them with the flooring material to create the base section. We also started on the steps and the escapes, which was a bonus. Woot!

Take a look at this comparison of the design and a photo of the actual deck:




We'll add updates as we get them.

The Week Ahead:

Saturday, September 10th: Set Saturday #2: "There Will Be Walls." We'll use the same schedule as we did last week - start at 9:30 and end around 5:30. We'll have some things to paint later in the day, and we'll be setting up the walls of the plant shop. We'll also be building windows for the fire escapes, doors for the plant shops, and if we have the sort of crew next week that we had this week, we'll build the fire escapes as well. Aside from the Little Shop set, we'll also be preparing lights for the Homecoming Assembly. LOTS to do.

NOTE: Don't forget to sign up for the Homecoming Assembly duties: Set up is 2nd and 3rd hour Monday, strike is 4th - 7th on Tuesday.

Thanks for a great start to our busy drama season!

Technical Clinics: Day 1 - Schedules, Procedures, and Tours

For those who are new to the program, welcome.

This online space will have specific times and dates for technical theater activities - which will also be posted on other web sites as well. From time to time, I'll share some resources, set designs, product reviews, and anything else related to technical theater. Check it often!

Tweeters: our Twitter hashtag is #washparts

This week's schedule:

Tuesday, Aug. 30: Technical Theater session #1 - 3:00 - 4:00-ish, Main Auditorium
Wednesday, Aug. 31: Technical Theater session #2 - 3:00 - 4:00-ish, Main Auditorium
Thursday, Sep. 1: Technical Theater session #3 - 3:00 - 4:00-ish, Main Auditorium
Saturday, Sep. 3: Set construction - 9:30 AM - 5:30 PM, Little Theater/Scene Shop

Remember that we do get dirty working on scenery - wear old clothing and shoes that can take a beating. Bring some money for lunch - we never really know what we'll be getting ahead of time, but enough for a fast-food type of lunch (or you can brown bag it as well.) It's not critical that you spend every minute there, but come when you can - you'll learn "on the job" and you'll get a chance to hang out with some of the coolest kids in the school.

Thanks for your interest, and we'll see you at the clinics!!

UPDATE: Auditorium Fly System Renovation Batten the Hatches!

The end is near - for the Auditorium fly system renovation. I'm confident the rest of us have some time left. What's happened in the last week? Lots!


Presenting the battens. No longer a collection of different lengths and diameters - not to mention age and shape - here you see uniform, 1-1/2 diameter schedule 80 pipe battens, exactly the same length - 52 feet. Not a bend or dent in the whole collection, they will do very nicely, thank you very much. And, as I haven't uttered the word safety yet in this post, check out the bright yellow urethane endcaps. The days of putting an orange safety cone over the ends of the batten when they are down are over!

Here is a look at the trim chains that are secured tot he ends of the lift cables (they are wrapped around the battens in the above photo). These chains can adjust each connection point of the batten to ensure that each batten is level. Over time, the lift cables will stretch ever so slightly, and the chains can be readjusted to make up for this change.







Here is our new fire curtain, in the down position. (Let's hope we never have to see it in this configuraion for real.) The fire curtain is on an automated drop-and-recovery system that makes resetting the curtain push-button easy. In the event of a fire, it will drop at a steady rate and close off the stage in 25 seconds. It is made of fiberglass and kevlar, not lead and asbestos as the old fire curtains were.



Next week, we'll post the final update, and at some point in the near future, we'll post a video walk-though of the new system.

UPDATE: Auditorium Fly System Renovation: Towing the Line

As with many construction projects, the infrastructure - that stuff that we can't see but we need for every thing can work smoothly - has to be done first, and it takes a lot of time. Our project is no different. The additional steel, the electrical work, and the repositioning of equipment is finally done, and now more visual aspect of the project is coming together. This week was all about rope and cable lines.

The weight arbors that have spent the past few weeks on the floor are now in place, and the control lines have been rigged. In this photo, the arbors on the far right are in the up  position - and those magnificent rope locks featured in the last update are holding the weight as advertised - and the ones to the left are in the down position. No counterweights have been added yet, but this allows the steel cable lines to be extended down all of the way.

And that looks like this: a veritable forest of steel cables. From this angle, it looks like they are hanging in random fashion, but there is order in this chaos. Each batten will be suspended by five cables spaced evenly from the grid. They will line up with the arbor that they are attached to, so what we have right now are several rows of five cables. This photo shows about 1/3 of the cables rigged, but most of this was completed in a day.

Evidence of one of the many improvements: automatic winches for the electrics. As stated in earlier postings, none of the electrical battens will raised or lowered by a hand line. Here is the control box, placed prominently on the rail. With the push of a button, hundreds of pounds of lighting instruments can move into position with accuracy.

Along with our lighting battens, the new fire curtain - WHICH WE HOPE WE NEVER HAVE TO USE - will also have an automatic control. Without getting into specific fire code rules and regulations, manual releases and automatic recovery systems need to be in place. According to ATD Ben Godwin - who knows a little something about fire alarms and prevention systems - the curtain will likely need to be tested on a regular basis. This will allow the curtain to be reset with relative ease.






The project is progressing as planned, and by the first day of school, the auditorium will be ready to use. We will have a training session during the technical theater clinics and safety seminars during the second week of school - plan accordingly! The next update will feature the battens, the curtains ... and whaddaya know, the project will be completed! Whoo HOO!

UPDATE: Auditorium Fly System Renovation: Lock, Load, and Lower.

The title of this post sounds catchy, but perhaps things are not quite in the right order. Ideally, we lower battens first, load them up with scenery and counterweights, then we lock them at a trim height. I suppose if you want to do things the hard way then I guess you can lock the batten, load it up with stuff and then lower it, but gravity usually wins that argument. Once again, I digress.

Today's update showcases some of the equipment that you will be interfacing with - the things that help us lock and lower the battens.

Presenting our new rope locks: The Restrictor. You may recall that we had an interesting - some might even call historical - collection of rope locks on our rail. (We counted three different types at the last strike.) The idea is that the operating lines - the white ropes that we pull to operate a batten - run through the lock to secure the rope from unintended movement. A cam (oval metal piece) would literally squeeze the rope against another metal surface inside of the lock until that pressure was enough to hold the load. Typically, if the batten was off by 25 pounds, the pressure would not be enough, and the rope would slip through - which was bad. Some of our older rope locks had a loop that would put additional pressure on the rope, but that was only good for countering another 20 pounds - not to mention that those loops were made of cast steel and prone to snapping off. Which was really bad.

A close-up view of the lock shows three things: an indicator to tell you if the batten is heavier than the arbor, a long, hefty handle, and a keyed lock. The indicator eliminates the need to check the balance by releasing the lock with hands on just in case it's out of balance. The indicator will give you a visual cue. The longer handle give the operator more leverage in locking the rope lock, and the lock prevents unnecessary batten operation.

Remember how we would really struggle raising and lowering the electrical battens? All those people trying to raise a batten full of lighting equipment? Me yelling things that I really shouldn't be yelling? Lovely times, I'm sure, but now a distant memory. Say hello to one of the many electrical hoists that will allow us to raise and lower the electrical battens with the push of a button. This is a close-up of one on the loading palate, but they have since then been installed on the grid. The control panel will be located on the fly rail, and it will be key operated. An additional safety concern is addressed by only allowing one batten to be lowered at any given time. The battens will be connected directly to the cable drums on the shaft connected to these motors, so no more counterweighting the electrics.

And what stage renovation is complete without curtains? Yards of lovely black curtains - teasers, borders, legs, mid-blacks - look at them! The luxurious velour, the nap of the fabric, the - OK, I know, they are still in their boxes. But they are here! That's a reason to get excited, right? Sure it is. They will likely be the last step of the install, so stay tuned for that event.

And just for giggles, I thought you should see why the Auditorium was closed off for the summer. I realize that many understand that idea that there would be a lot of people working on the grid, and that there are plenty of fall hazards around, but the stage deck has been the work zone for the installers. This birds-eye view shows you how much stuff is left to do.

And there is still a lot to be done. This week, the electricians are doing their thing, connecting the winches to the control panels and connecting the fire curtain control to the release mechanisms. The arbors are still lying in position, waiting for their installation, and there are hunks of steel that are sitting on palates. I'm not sure what they do exactly, but they are heavy and hunky, and whatever they do, I'd bet they do it well. Check here again next week for the latest update.

UPDATE: Auditorium Fly System Renovation: Steel Your Resolve

For those who have never watched anything with a sizable amount of steel being assembled, or who have no idea how it's done, take the opportunity to see how something gets built. We're lucky that we have men and women who are known as steel workers. These people are the experts at taking large, impossibly heavy chunks of metal that have been fabricated to a certain size and shape, reading the construction drawings, placing the steel at various heights, and securing it. They also have an arsenal of tools, lifts, ropes, winches and sometimes plain ol' brute strength to get the job done. We'd be doing them a large disservice if we didn't tip our hats to them.

So, what have our friends the steelworkers been doing? Let's take a gander, shall we?

This view is from upstage, looking stage right and nearly straight up. At the top of the image is the gray underside of the new catwalk - or the loading gallery - moved from the stage to its permanent location. In the past, we've used this to counter weight the arbors so we could raise battens that had been loaded in the down position. We will still have that option, but we will likely not need to do that any longer. The bull winch (which will be featured in future blogs) will pull the arbors down to the floor level, and we can counter the weight on the ground - which, as we have all heard before, is safer. The black vertical lines that run the length of the photo are actually the tracks that the arbors will ride along as they move up and down. No more cable guides that allow the heavy arbors to twist as they move. Smoother and safer.

These are the arbors, lined up and ready to be attached to the tracks. These very solid pieces of equipment are much heavier than what they are replacing - and they are virtually all one piece when assembled correctly. These will hold the counter weights that will act against the weight of the batten. You will notice that these new arbors will be a bit taller, and that there will be far less "play" or movement in the arbor. Once again, we can say "safer."

Five palates of weights await their final resting spot upon the arbors. These weights have a notch on either end that will fit around the arbor bars, which will hold them in place securly. The process of loading the arbors will be very similar to what we've been doing in the past. These weights will be all be one weight - about 35 lbs. per brick - instead of the two sizes we've been used to. As the bricks are lighter than what we are used to, and since our system will have a much higher loading capacity,  there will be - and I quote Giles Cory from The Crucible - "more weight." (Don't worry - we'll keep the Salem Puritans far away from these should the get the idea of holding trials again.)

Here is a close look at the US end of the fly rail and the tension blocks - those pulleys near the floor that guide the control ropes. The are heavy beasts, not because they bear a lot of weight, but because they are able to travel a short distance up and down to account for any change in the length of the control ropes. Temperature and humidity affect the ropes over time, so the downward weight of the block will always keep a reasonable amount of pressure on the line. The horizontal rail is empty now, but will soon hold the rope locks - which we'll discuss in future blogs.

Here is a better look at the rail, from US looking DSR. This will look fairly familiar - the shape and length of the rail is essentially the same dimension of the old one. What is different is the gauge (thickness) of the steel. It's a beefy hunk of metal, for sure. At the far end of the rail, you'll notice that they are in the early stages of attaching the control lines - the white rope dangling down is looped up and around the control loft block pulley. These rope loops will be attached to the top and bottom of each arbor, just as with our old system.

Now a word about the new fire curtain. Remember that rope that had wires twisted around it, with a board jammed in the middle of the rope twist? Yeah, let's not talk about that any more. It's long gone, and now we have a nice, new system that can be run automatically or manually. This equipment is necessary should a fire occur on stage. A fire proof curtain closes the proscenium off from the audience, allowing them time to safely evacuate. Let us hope that we never have to drop the thing for real. It is likely, though, that if we have a prolonged power outage, or if a smoke detector in the theater sends a false alarm, it will come down on its own accord. An  electric winch system will allow us to quickly and safely get the curtain back in its safe mode. There are also manual release in case a fire is spotted before the system activates. Regardless, releasing the curtain for the fun of it is the same thing as pulling an alarm to get your jollies - and it's against the law, complete with fines, expulsion hearings, and the title of "felon." In other words, use only in emergencies.

Within the next week, the arbors will be slid into place, cables will be attached, and ropes will be strung. Battens are sitting in the shop just waiting to be assembled, and electrical connections are being prepped for the winches. A lot of work still needs to be done, but according to Tiffin Scenic Studio installers, we are on schedule.

UPDATE: Auditorium Fly System Renovation: Some Assembly Required

Oh, it's like Christmas in the Auditorium.

Actually, it's more like Christmas Eve. You know, when the toys are all in boxes, and "Santa" has to take everything out, make sure all the parts are there, put together the stuff, check that there are more than enough batteries, and somewhere during all of that there is the consumption of the "special eggnog," and for some unexplained reason, Mom and Dad need a nice long nap and 9:00 AM on Christmas Day? Yeah, that sort of Christmas Eve. Well, here's where we are as of July 12th:

First of all, let's look up an stage right. The new catwalk/loading gallery has been installed. It's a bit hard to see here, but it actually is a few feet higher than the old one. Because of this, the stage side of the catwalk is completely caged, and the rail height is just below the height of the grid iron. In comparison, the older catwalk sat about six to seven feet below the grid. Remember all of that talk about safety? Yup - this is one of those nice perks of having stuff installed in this century rather than the last one.

 This photo shows the new weight arbors standing on their sides. There isn't a good way to show how much bigger they are, but they stand about 7 feet tall, which means we have a lot of capacity for each batten. The arbors will slide in what is called a J-track so that they don't twist back and forth as our old arbors did on their cable guides. This will make for smoother lifts and drops, and will eliminate the twisting action of fully-weighted arbors. Which, I might add, is safer.

To the right are what I believe are the floor blocks - those pulleys on the ground at the bottom of the fly rail that guide the pull ropes. They also located at the top of the system, but ganged with the cable blocks, which I'll talk about next. This picture shows eight of them arranged on their loading palate, so it's a bit hard to see all of the details. The frame for each sticks out a bit further than the old ones, which leads me to believe that they will be firmly anchored to the ground. Which, again, seems like  a much safer situation that what we've had.

 Lots of things in this photo: on the left side of the photo is a lot of flat bar steel and angled steel that will eventually become the J-track that I discussed earlier. There is also a fair amount of bracing that will need to be installed, largely out of sight of the working end of things. On the right side of the photo is one of the racks of new battens. 1-1/2" tube steel that is straight and interlocks with the other pieces that will create 25 battens that are the same diameter, length, and trim height. Oh, can you just smell the safety in our theater?

Here are the head blocks - and it's not a great picture but you can see some of the sheaves that the cables will go over and across the top of the grid. These will be located at the top of the fly tracks. One thing that we can't get a good picture of (yet) are the loft blocks. These are the pulleys that some of you may recall were bolted to the grid. Not anymore. The loft blocks are now mounted to the roof girders, which means that if for some reason we need to get to the grid, we will walk under the cables rather than stepping over them. If any of you have ever done this - and I'm guessing not many of you have - you will realize just how much more safer this arrangement will be for us.

As things continue to progress, I'll keep on updating. There's still a long way to go, but things are getting done. Plans are in place for the ceremonial first curtain pull later in August. (OK, a bit kitchy I admit, but we need to do something!)