The Stage

Technical Talk

Published Tuesday 4 April 2006 at 09:30 by Robin Johnson

One of the pleasures of living in Scotland is the enlightened approach to the performing arts this country has. There is investment going on right, left and centre, giving Scotland a range of up to date, superbly appointed venues which are taking many different forms of the performing arts firmly forward, without losing sight of the past.

The latest of these venues to open (or strictly speaking, re-open) is the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh. Having occupied the top floor of the Netherbow Arts Centre since 1997, the Scottish Storytelling Forum has now taken over the entire building, which is currently in the final stages of a five-year, nearly £3 million rebuild.

The diamond in the new centre’s crown is a 96-seat studio theatre, which Edinburgh-based lighting company Black Light specified and installed the technical infrastructure for.

The new space is extremely well appointed to the extent that Black Light’s Paul McGreal suggests it’s perhaps the best equipped performance space of its type in the UK.

Lighting comes from 20 Selecon Acclaim fresnels, ten Acclaim PCs, 18 Source Four Junior Zooms and eight Source Four Pars, hung from eight internally wired bars, controlled by an ETC Sensor dimming system and a Strand 300 console.

On the audio side, four Tannoy T12 are driven by T&M amplifiers alongside two Tannoy Reveal Actives.

Control is from a Soundcraft Spirit Folio console while outboard and accessories include a Sennheiser radio mic system, Yamaha EQ and MiniDisc/CD/cassette players.

Visuals are also catered for in the shape of a pair of Sanyo projectors, alongside drapes and a wide range of accessories.

For a studio theatre with a capacity of less than 100, it’s an impressive spec and may well help the image of storytelling to be shifted away from the idea of slightly mad people with unruly hair, dressed in funny clothes and sitting under trees.

Here, production technology has opened up a whole new raft of possibilities. The setting can be adjusted to create whatever kind of atmosphere is required, allowing the art of storytelling to be as historical or as contemporary as the artist wants.

Undoubtedly the new facility will help the art of storytelling to move forward, which is exactly what a performance space should be about.

Situated on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, the revamped Scottish Storytelling Centre reopens on May 1.