fly tower, persuading people to part with finances Options

[tivoliproduction]

I work as a production manager in a theatre in dorset and have had people suggest in the past few (9) years of working here that a fly tower would really help, only a couple of downsides to the whols situation- the place is run almost entirely by volunteers (I'm one of 4 paid staff!!) but they have successfully managed to rasie excellent amounts to build a new dressing room area and huge scene dock/load in dock. what points can I use to sell the idea to the people who need to fundraise the cash?? does anyone know of any government grants etc available???


HELP!!!!!!


www.tivoliwimborne.co.uk


Moderation : topic moved to General Tech Chat, and completely unnecessary duplicate removed. Would members please take the time to ensure that they're posting to the most appropriate forum when they start new topics, and refrain from opening multiple instances of the same topic (it won't get you twice as many answers, it'll just irritate the moderators ...).

oops, sorry still learning

This post has been edited by tivoliproduction: 6 Sep 2005, 10:57 PM

[themadhippy]

whilst a fly tower is handy they ain't cheap,around £100,000 for 18 ways of double purchase counterweight sets, don't forget you may need the optional add on packs,like strengthening the structure of the building or increasing the height above the stage.

[Bryson]

And probably as much again, if not more, if you need to modify the exterior of the building to add the height. You'll need an Architect, a structural engineer, lots and lots of cash!

Funding wise, National Lottery, Local Council, Arts Council England are the usual suspects for fundraising. Fundraising is a whole skill in itself.

[d_korman]

Though in a small local theatre, counterweights may not be essential - we have 23 manual uncounterbalanced "hemp" sets which we use to great effect, though of course it does limit you to flying cloths, gauzes and lightly built items of scenery.

[Just Some Bloke]

Funding wise, National Lottery, Local Council, Arts Council England are the usual suspects for fundraising.  Fundraising is a whole skill in itself.

I believ it used to be the case that the Arts Council via the National Lottery would not fund any new buid theatres with fly towers. They, apparently, saw them as a waste of money. Desgns had to be changed to not include a fly tower. Don't know if this is still the case?

[andy_s]

I think this is a bit of an urban myth, possibly originating from an architect who would rather spend the money on a nice foyer??? ( no offence meant) We've certainly got plenty of full height single and double purchase CW sets, and we've recieved lottery money towards our project. And the ROH has a very big fly tower, and they got a pound or two from similar sources, as did Sadlers Wells, the Lowry (I believe - may be wrong) etc etc ....it's fine to reinvent how to move scenery when you have plenty of space to use trucks, stage pallets and revolves, but certainly in our case the footprint of our plot is small, so the only way was up. And to prove I don't particularly have an axe to grind about architects, ours has been really clever in his use of limited space. (and we've got quite a nice foyer as well)

Themadhippy's figures may be a little on the high side - we budgeted about 3 -4k per set, for 30 odd sets (including some DP but mostly SP). Depends who you go to, and what else is in their package, I guess. And we were a new build - installing into an existing building brings a lot of unknowns and a higher risk, which of course puts the price up. Unusual Rigging have done our stage engineering and flying installation very nicely- snagging on wednesday, not really expecting to find much to talk about.... (fingers crossed)

Just occured to me that the ROH and Sadlers could I suppose be classified as refurbishment, but there is not a lot left of the originals in either case - Sadlers Wells had only the back well of the auditorium left standing, while the ROH pretty much rebuilt its tower from scratch.

This post has been edited by andy_s: 15 Sep 2005, 7:15 PM

[themadhippy]

100k was wot it cost us last year( the quarantee runs out soon) being council we had to follow the "best value"rules, so whilst not the cheapest,it was no were near the most expensive,I suppose all the new steel work needed to build the fly gallery pushed the price up a bit

[andy_s]

100k was wot it cost us last year( the quarantee runs out soon) being council we had to follow the "best value"rules, so whilst not the cheapest,it was no were near the most expensive,I suppose all the new steel work needed to build the fly gallery pushed the price up a bit

Sorry - didn't mean to suggest you hadn't got the figures right for your job, just that the price always depends on the whole package - I'm sure our price is different because 1) the CW system was part of a larger stage engineering package; 2) with a new building, a lot of the structural requirements are provided in other contracts; 3) I guess economies of scale mean that the unit price for 30 sets is less than for 18; and no doubt many other variables.

Oh and of course, with double purchase, you have to buy a lot more weights...the majority of our sets are single purchase.

I hope you didn't think I was being rude - not my intention at all, but if I gave any adverse impressions, my humble apologies!

This post has been edited by andy_s: 16 Sep 2005, 10:09 AM