Default rig in a black box?

[back_ache]

Our new stage manager has come up with an interesting idea.

 

He wants our two spaces to have default rigs and for them to be fixed in position using zip-ties.

 

The twist is, our second space is a black-box where, which by its nature, the the location of the actors and audience changes from show to show (we have a new show every fortnight)

 

Is it possible to have a default rig in this situation (without having a huge amount of fixtures, or a default rig so minimal it might as well not be there)

 

I understand where he is coming from to certain extent, we don't use IWB's, we use 4 channel distributed 5 amp dimmers, fed by temporary 16amp cables running back to our distribution boards, so the cabling can often look a bit "random"

 

what do we think?

[Smiffy]

Why not also start telling incoming productions that they can have a maximum of 6 cues, only use Lee 119 and open white, and have a maximum of 5 sound cues?

 

The whole point of Theatre is that we are manipulating an environment to create a mood and atmosphere appropriate to the piece. A venue therefore must be flexible...

 

A daft idea if ever there was one..

 

Cheers

 

Smiffy

[ImagineerTom]

For "one night stands" then there's some merit to having a fixed rig (provided its properly designed) with one or two specials that can be moved but if you're hosting "productions" then it's a ridiculous idea to try and guess what their needs will be and restrict all productions to a fixed rig.

[pete LD]

[ name=back_ache' timestamp='1306143499' post='395528]

Our new stage manager has come up with an interesting idea.

 

Tell him to stick to stage management! (;

 

This is a lame idea and as Smiffy says the whole idea of lighting is to create mood and atmosphere.

 

If you just need some light in the space just put the working lights on and sell your theatre lamps!

[mac.calder]

A default rig is a good thing in the right sort of venue - one who does a lot of one-nighters, low->no budget shows and tight turn arrounds - cable tying it in place is completely daft no matter what circumstances)

[paulears]

If the two spaces are identical, then an duplicate makes some kind of sense, but few are identical, so there's little point I'd have thought.

 

I'm not quite sure 'default' is the best description. Many of us have a basic rig layout for the one-nighters that can be added to, or swapped around - making the best time management. I'm sure you already have one - after all, what works for one dance show is probably not that much different from the comedian, and a band might be similar with a few added specials. For some things you might need to get shot of the 'in the way' lighting. Our cyc, for example is lit with a dozen LED fixtures - they either point at the ccy, but if the cyc is out and we have a star cloth in, then we'll simply flip them forwards to become backlight, and out the bar goes again.

 

So if you don't have any lighting equipment semi-permanently rigged, and simply rig and cable up from scratch for each show - then a basic pre-rig of useful common stuff will save you hours of effort.

 

I think we need a bit more info before being able to comment on good/bad?

[TomHoward]

We have a 'standard' or 'generic' rig, which we then either use as-is or deviate from slightly to accommodate short incoming productions or in-house stuff like drama exams where you have to peddle through 4 different shows on one night - but we'll strip it and start from scratch for anything that requires it. Mostly it gives us something to go back to after productions, so that there's always something appropriate, rather than everything being focussed halfway up the wall on one side because there's where the rostra was from the last show.

 

The generic rig has a decent white cover, a few specials in places that can be re-focused as needed, and a few spare fresnels that can be coloured as needed. It also has plenty of spare channels as well, and plenty of spare lanterns, as otherwise you may find yourself taking things off the standard rig to either use the channel or the lantern elsewhere - which then kind of defies the point of the workload saving.

[back_ache]

We have a proscenium space and I can see the sense there and it should hopefully be any easy way to encourage productions to de-rig anything after their show that's not generally useful.

 

The black box theatre has nothing permanent in it except the main lighting bar's, the location of the seating changes from show to show as does the rotation and format of the room.

 

Maybe we need to ask the SM what he defines mess as, for example some people because of time-constraints or whatever let the cabling fly loose from one bar to another, so perhaps asking for people to keep cables attached to the bars may do the trick.

[ImagineerTom]

If it's genuinely that they're concerned about visual "mess" (rather than actual safety issues arrising from the cable runs) then you should perhaps ask them why they think the product on offer is so dull the audience will be spending the show looking at the grid and not the performance?

[ramdram]

We tried a "fixed rig" a few seasons back...lasted about one show then the next director changed it all to what he had "plotted". The other directors did as they wished, on the ground it was their show, stage and vision of how they wanted the audience to see their play.

 

Sounds like your SM has no idea about theatre. Does he understand about "specials" or possibly "practicals"? Perhaps a quiet word over a pint or two to get to the bottom of his "thoughts" then a careful, considerate word in his ear about different moods, needs, etc etc.

 

We have now reached an understanding at our place. Visiting co.s are just pleased to be lit and discover we can change the lanterns to suit them...including finding a gel or two.

 

Bands just want to be lit, especially with a FS on the lead matey.

[mark_s]

I agree that it's a very bad idea. Nothing infuriates me more than venues (almost always small fringe venues, or venues attached to stage schools) which are totally rigid and inflexible on modifying their standard rig. Their standard rigs most often seem to be devised by technicians with no creative ability, who don't appreciate the importance of backlight! It seems that every other fringe show I light, I have to practically rip out their rig and start from scratch, or fight the venue to allow me to hang things in sensible places. It's a shame when venues aren't all that flexible, as ultimately I still get paid my fee, and the show suffers!

 

If you do end up going down this route, can you ensure that there are enough positions to allow for most things that a lighting designer might ask for? Backlight, sidelight and toplight are equally as important as frontlight, so if you can hang enough lanterns per area to give the designer a reasonable choice of what to use, then it has slightly more merit than if there's absolutely no scope for creativity at all. The ability to re-colour it all is also essential!

 

If mess is the problem though, why don't you run some semi-permanent cable to the bars in a neat and orderly fashion? Evenly space enough outlets along the bars that you won't need to regularly run cable, and then patch as required at the other end. Hopefully that'll remove a lot of the need to run new cable.

 

If it's genuinely that they're concerned about visual "mess" (rather than actual safety issues arrising from the cable runs) then you should perhaps ask them why they think the product on offer is so dull the audience will be spending the show looking at the grid and not the performance?

 

I can't disagree more with that. Maybe I'm pedantic and oh-so-slightly OCD, but I truly believe that if something is on display to the audience, every effort should be made to make it look as neat and tidy as possible. Hopefully the audience's focus won't be on the rig at all, but if there's the chance that they're going to be looking at it, I'd rather it was presentable with neatly-run cable and black tape, rather than multi-coloured messy old tape hanging off, and cable everywhere. I think attention to detail is important :)

[Genus]

Excuse me for just a second, I'll give you my views after the following...

 

<rant>

 

As a visiting technician, I've been to venues that have a standard rig. I have had to spend an hour or two of MY (paid for) get-in time de-rigging it before being able to get on with my job of rigging for the show that hired me. This has led to a very annoyed technician.

 

I've also been forced (in the contract for one venue) to reset the rig to THEIR standard during my get-out and even re-patch their dimmers. All in the 90 minutes before 11pm (the time at which we have to down tools, because no one is allowed to stay later, the janitor locks up).

 

Funnily enough I'm not a magician and the last time I was in this venue I managed to re-hang all their lamps (about 40 of them, from a tallescope, so fairly time consuming), and re-plug them, but failed to re-plug the dimmers. The janitor rolled in and chucked us out and assured me that it wouldn't be a problem.

 

A full 3 months later the company I was working for received a letter from the venue manager chastising me and calling into question MY professionalism because I hadn't re-patched for them. And this in the same venue that breaks up my get in for 4 hours so the local bowls club can use the space. This is in a venue that is called "**. ******'s THEATRE" (name obscured, but my point is, it calls itself a theatre).

 

Incidentally, it has no technical staff, kit isn't maintained and the janitorial staff are adversarial and aggressive (I tried to be as pleasant and accommodating as possible), with control over the retractable seating and working light in their office...

 

Fortunately I'd made the company aware of this, and the other problems inherent in such a venue before I left, and when they got the letter they passed it onto me.

 

Being British I wrote a strongly worded retort and complaint detailing everything wrong with the venue...before deciding not to send it.

 

</rant>

 

Anyway, back to the topic at hand...

 

Needless to say, I have problems with standard rigs, especially if you expect visiting companies to rehang them during their own get-out.

 

However if you work it right, and can negotiate with companies so you know what they need before hand, maybe a standard design you can rig for the smaller shows, or the shows without their own technical or design staff might be appropriate. But that depends on the nature of your space and whether this would be practical (under the circumstances it sounds unlikely).

 

And if the complaint from Stage Management is purely unsightly cables, maybe another solution can be reached so that the wiring is neater?

 

Even so, I would suggest above all else to be flexible, because it's quite demoralising having to reset your rig to a "default" only to have to strike it the minute the next company arrives.

 

Genus

 

ETA: I completely agree with Mark_S. Flexibility is essential and neatness is good!

[J Pearce]

I operate a default rig at the school I work at.

Its not set in stone, but I prefer to add to it rather than take anything out.

 

Internally we operate in a manner not dissimilar to repertory, with shows overlapping all the time. As such giving each show its own rig would be a logistical nightmare. Like many council venues we only hire with a technician (me, or me) so that we know everything will still be ready for the basic show the following day.

 

I try to keep most of what anyone could want in the default rig (including backlight, toplight and sidelight), with a good selection of colour. When we have external shows come in I'm not precious about moving the rig around as long it goes back afterwards (you help me do it, or pay me and assistant to do it).

We have external shows fairly regularly, some go 'ooh lights!', some aren't fussed and find everything they need and more in my rig, some add specials and recolour, but so far only one has needed any significant re-rigging.

 

If a tech came in with a show and insisted on a complete strip of the rig I'd be somewhat concerned about their ego, and would also be off to the office to add several hours labour to their invoice for rerigging time.

 

I redesign the default rig every year to keep things fresh, add in things I've found myself wanting the previous year and take out things that don't get used. Our big show gets as much rerig as it needs, I don't strip the rig out just to create work putting it back in!

[Junior8]

I can't disagree more with that. Maybe I'm pedantic and oh-so-slightly OCD, but I truly believe that if something is on display to the audience, every effort should be made to make it look as neat and tidy as possible. Hopefully the audience's focus won't be on the rig at all, but if there's the chance that they're going to be looking at it, I'd rather it was presentable with neatly-run cable and black tape, rather than multi-coloured messy old tape hanging off, and cable everywhere. I think attention to detail is important :)

 

When I cut my teeth in the 'village hall scene' back in the seventies where everything was hired in with the usual 30 yards of cable it was impressed on me by my elders that neatness in cable runs was absolutely vital - if for no other reason than to keep the Fireman quiet. And that was before cable ties were ubiquitous. As for the black box if it is indeed used as flexibly as the OP says I can see no point in a fixed rig at all - unless the real aim is to eliminate the flexibility all together as well as cutting down the work by offering a non-negotiable Hobson's Choice to anything coming in.

[david.elsbury]

I would be extremely concerned to see a rig installed with zip ties. They are not rated to take a load, and furthermore can melt if they get too hot - therefore a poor choice for rigging lanterns.

 

David