Outdoor theatre

[J Pearce]

We have a production of Midsummer Night's Dream coming up, and we're setting it in a 4 sided courtyard in the school grounds. Audience on 3 sides, and making use of the trees on one side of the courtyard as a backdrop.

 

The backdrop faces NE. (see here, the courtyard is roughly where the 4 huts are on the pic)The show will start 7.30pm and run through til around 9.30, with a healthily long interval to make some money!

 

Now the awkward bit, we were originally aiming to produce this late July, but for various reasons have had to move it to June 30th. Sunset is nominally 21:21.

 

I've had someone run some renders through wysiwyg, and 12k of PARs/Fresnels seems to make an impact from about 8.30 onwards. However, I don't trust wyg too much, so can anyone share some experience? I'm leaning towards not bothering.

[Jivemaster]

So you are expecting your audience to sit facing into a summer sunset for an hour :(

[Andrew C]

You'll need lights. If you are in a courtyard, you'll be in shade much earlier than sunset.

[J Pearce]

Sorry confusion about the backdrop location. The backdrop is NE of the audience.

Imagine a square rotated by 45d. The NE edge is the backdrop.

 

There are also two storey buildings NE, NW and SE around the courtyard and a tall single storey building SW. There are however gaps between these buildings.

 

I'll try to get some pics next week, if I can get there early enough to get student free photos. I'll bodge a paint diagram up and post it up in a bit.

 

[edit]

I make no apologies for the awfulness of this diagram! The google satellite image is 18months out of date, we've lost 4 huts and gained 2 buildings.

 

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y21/bangadrum/dodgypaintdiagram.jpg

 

[edited again as my new server doesn't seem to like hotlinking images...]

[Jivemaster]

Glad about that! The sun makes a huge wash light and an OTT backlight! You will probably benefit from some lighting during the first half and you will need lighting during the second half.

[RumbleO]

Yes you will need to light it.

I'd suggest lighting it naturally so the fading natural light is not obvious.

A couple of specials may be needed for some of Puck's business (and possibly for Titania in her nest.)

The blocking will guide you as to how far from the main acting area they are, whether they'll be visible or not.

 

It is surprising how much the light reduces in the evening.

 

And finally, with no lighting the Headteacher's last night speech will be delivered in gloom..

[themadhippy]

Last time I done Shakespeare outdoors we used oil filled flaming torches ,much easier to rig than a load of lx.Think they came from that well known lighting supplier, B+q.

[J Pearce]

Nice! Not sure I'd get that past the safety elf though...

[adam2]

Yes, it will need lighting, the show ends 9 minutes after sunset, or perhaps 20 minutes with a little lateness.

Natural light declines noticeabley at least 30 minutes before sunset, earlier in dull weather or if surounded by buildings.

[kerry davies]

When I have toured to camp sites and the like I have found that keeping it simple and letting the great LD take the decisions works like a dream. For Canterbury Tales I simply threw up a pair of 500W floods, turned them on and left them. God fades sun and lamps take over, simples.

You can work all sorts of complexity into this basic scenario but you are not going to beat nature as an LD. As long as the lanterns cover evenly they can help fill in shaded areas during sunshine and the audience rarely notices any change in perception as the sun sets. I tend to use steeper angles outdoors and no uplighting if possible but if you set something up at around sunset to see what it looks like, don't forget the sun will have moved around the horizon. Isn't there a facility for views at various times on Google Earth?

 

Fire cans are possible but a school safety rep might get freaked at you topping them up every 20 minutes or so. Garden torches rarely chuck out enough light but if you had a wedge of them they might suffice..

[MGLX]

firstly from a H&S point of view I would ensure you had some good emergency lighting (a couple of the emergency floods could work well- let me know if you need to hire some as we stock them, (as do a number of other companies I'm sure). I will always use them if there is even a slight risk of it getting dark or shady when doing things like this. its just better to be safe than sorry!

 

Do you have safe access to the roof and is there any way you can rig some lighting on one of those?

 

you may be able to get away with using some low level stands up on the roof, as long as you can get a counterweight up there safely to secure them to as a secondary means. you may also have to consider the possibility of winds.

Alternatively, is the audience is in raised seating, you could put up a couple of allow scaffold towers and rig some lighting in them, you may well be able to put another "floor" above the lights with a tarp over it to provide some weather protection, saving you the hassle of de rigging every time. I would do this even if I was using outdoor waterproof ip64 lights, as an added back up and because you never know when its going to rain?

 

you will also need to look at power point locations, I wouldn't recommend using the normal ring main unless your simply using some small floods, the voltage drop on the possible long cable runs could cause issues- possible led lighting??

 

I know the above aren't many defined solutions but may well provide some ideas and other things you haven't thought of.

 

{Edit- you will need to check if you are putting stuff onto the roof the wind loading and if the roof can take then loads properly, along with the scaffold tower, dont just clamp the lights to the side of the tower!}

[lx2010]

I simply threw up a pair of 500W floods, turned them on and left them. God fades sun and lamps take over, simples.

 

I agree totaly here its a no brainer few floods evenly focused to no blotchy areas will be perfect and you do have to remember were not talking about a westend venue with enough power for 50k of dimming all this could be eaisly run off of a 13a outlet which will be widely available at this venue

 

Links;

 

http://www.seleconlight.com//index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.p1&category_id=123&product_id=58 [with 500w lamp]

[J Pearce]

Logistics I have sorted. It's only a 1 nighter, an I know my plan for how to light it.

 

Just needed confirmation it was worth the effort before I spend money on hiring stands and power cables. Budgets are small now!!

 

Going to put a doughty wind up in each corner with 2 P743s and 2 PAR64s on each. The 4 trees get a floorcan each. This all run from 3 betapacks fed by 3 32A outlets in the adjacent dance studio. I've had approval to export earth from my sparky.

 

Specials will be covered by our two buxies through open windows in the two buildings to each side.

 

Thanks everyone for your replies and help, will see if I can get clearance to put some photos up after the show.

[kerry davies]

Sounds good, Jon, good luck and do try to post, I love outdoor gigs.

Is there any site lighting which might interfere? As it is a school you may not have taken notice of night-time lighting in this area.

 

Had to ###### my crew for gaffa covering a street lamp in Bristol once. Nice effects though! B-)

[J Pearce]

Site lighting is already on my list of things to check. Got plenty of evening events before then to check; and the caretakers will do anything if supplied with enough biscuits.