HSL recently supplied and installed a full mother grid and flying system for scenery, cloths and props, plus all the lighting equipment to stage one of the UK’s highest profile pantomimes, Robinson Crusoe and the Caribbean Pirates, at the Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow.
The show, produced by Qdos Entertainment, starred the Krankies and John Barrowman who also co-directed with Jonathan Kiley. Nick Richings designed the lighting, described as a vibrant fusion of moods to match the pacey rhythm of the performance. According to HSL, the production involved a lot of pre-planning with the Qdos team, led by production director Mark Sherwood for whom HSL has supplied pantomimes for many years. The flying and rigging system was designed and drawn by HSL’s head of rigging, Rupert Reynolds, and took just one day to install. The mother grid measured 18 metres wide by 12 deep, was constructed from Tomcat 20.5cm spigoted truss and suspended from six two tonne motors. This was flown as high as possible, right up to the house beams, trimmed at 23 metres. Underneath this were 13 sections of ladder beam trussing on a total of 26 Kinesys Liftket motors, allowing the fast movement in and out of numerous scenery pieces and cloths.
All in all, Reynolds designed a fully integrated system comprising 61 motors and 440 metres of truss, all crammed into a very tight space. The Kinesys Vector control was run by Heather Orr, a Glasgow based freelance technician, who visited HSL and Kinesys in advance to receive training. The show was the biggest HSL pantomime during the festive season, the 3000-seater Clyde Auditorium being sold out for the 38 show run.
www.hslgroup.com
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