theroo Posted February 3, 2004 Posted February 3, 2004 Hi You won't believe what a godsend this forum is for me.Anyway...Im doing a final year project on engineering in theatre (im an engineering student). its quite a unusual topic for a engineering student especially, but I love theatre and the arts. I was just wondering, are there any stage designers, or engineers even that have had experiences with large engineering needs or perhaps have been restricted in their productions because certain things are 'just not possible' Any help would really be great. thanks!
Mars Posted February 4, 2004 Posted February 4, 2004 Realising a performance at a non-theatre location, one has to deal with...lack of electricitynowhere to rig anything onfire hazard / defunct elevators / broken anythingsmuddy agreementswalking audiencescrazy artisansidiot artisticiansthe none-existance of timethe inescapability of the deadlineThe more you're in the house, the better things are organised.But, one cannot put a 24+ ft scenery-in-one-piece in a 16- ft stage. Oh boy, do we have fun or what!
andy_s Posted February 4, 2004 Posted February 4, 2004 load-bearing loadbearing loadbearing - a crucial engineering decision is to do with how much weight you need to put on things, and how much you can hang from things, and how to achieve the required capacity without putting loads of steel in everywhere and obstructing access..
theroo Posted February 5, 2004 Author Posted February 5, 2004 thanks thanks! just wondering. but why steel.are there not other metals or perhaps even strong plastics that would beable to take the weight of actors etc in a performance?is it just because steel has been used for so long and is therefore very common and hence cheap... am I right in saying that most of the time, materials are chosen moreso for their cost than functionality (I wldnt expect to find a set made from titanium I know...)
Tomo Posted February 5, 2004 Posted February 5, 2004 Cost! Most definately cost. Our sets tend to be made from hardboard on 2x1 frames, purely because it's the cheapest stuff we cen get hold of that the fire officer is happy about. Trussing tends to be industrial purity aluminium for the same reason - light and relatively cheap.
Brian Posted February 5, 2004 Posted February 5, 2004 just wondering. but why steel.are there not other metals or perhaps even strong plastics that would beable to take the weight of actors etc in a performance?is it just because steel has been used for so long and is therefore very common and hence cheap...For the same section size, Steel is over 3 times as strong as Aluminium and over 90 times as strong as Polycarbonate. It's also much cheaper than either of those. EDIT postman has now gone so I can finish what I was going to say. materials are chosen moreso for their cost than functionality If you have a choice of two materials which will do the job then obviously you will choose the cheaper. In many situations, in all engineerinf fields, you are working to a set of constraints, space, weight, budget etc, all of which interact. In stage applications there have been some clever engineered solutions, often using very basic materials - have a look at stressed skin panels for flooring use (hint, google on triscuit and yale).
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