FALLING DRAPE

Because neither theatre was able to fly the drape, for us, it's tied with the breaking glass for the biggest challenge in the show.

Although we have a flown main drape at the theatre in Kamloops, it was too far upstage and we had to rig something else. In Chemainus, unfortunately, they weren't able to use a drape at all and ended the show with a lighting effect instead. 

We suspended the drape track on lines through pulleys so it could ‘fall’ to a predetermined safe height. The track was tied off at the offstage end but the drape wasn’t. This meant that when the track dropped at centre the drape could slide downhill onto the actors. The actors helped, of course, by wrapping themselves in the drape.

The effect was perfect. There was a great reaction from the audience every night. 

Please make sure you know what you are doing before rigging this. I’m not going to give any tech details here because I don’t want any miscommunication that could lead to an accident.

No comments:

Post a Comment