Raked Staging

[SamDram]

Hi,

I've had a request for some raked staging for an upcoming performance of Metamorphosis. Of course, I said "Yes no problem", but I'm struggling to find somewhere that stocks a raised, raked stage deck and I do not have time to build something bespoke.

Obviously using different sized legs on our current stage decks will put a horrible amount of strain on the clamps...and it will more than likely just tip forward.

Has anybody used slanted/raked staging before? Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

[Tom]

What is your existing staging and how steep a rake do you want?

 

It is not unusual to create a rake using something like Steedeck on different length legs.

[top-cat]

What is your existing staging and how steep a rake do you want?

 

It is not unusual to create a rake using something like Steedeck on different length legs.

 

If doing this you need to use swivel-base screwjacks really, so the contact with the floor is still flat. They'll also help as you should be able to use stock leg lengths and use the adjustment in the screwjack to get them to fit.

[ImagineerTom]

....and remembering that your injury rate on a raked stage is significantly higher than on a flat stage - even more so for inexperienced dancers/performers who will have never worked on a rake before nor know how to warm-up and prepare for it.

[Tom]

Both true, depending on how steep a rake we're talking about.

 

Regarding the performers :

This is a link to the Equity Safety Committee guidance on the matter (PDF file).

T

[SamDram]

What is your existing staging and how steep a rake do you want?

 

We are currently using ProLyte Stage Dex for raised staging. The gradient only needs to be slight...in the region of about 20%, with one performer on it 'writhing around' as if painfully turning into a beetle.

 

Regarding the performers :

This is a link to the Equity Safety Committee guidance on the matter (PDF file).

 

Thanks, that's a great document!

 

EDIT: The rake needs to be about 1:21...not 20%!

 

 

 

[ImagineerTom]

If there's only one performer on that stage why does it need to be raked?

[SamDram]

If there's only one performer on that stage why does it need to be raked?

 

I don't ask why. If I asked "why?" to everything that the drama department wanted to do, nothing would ever get done http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/dry.gif BUT I think the gist is to keep that particular scene fairly surrealist. Also, the "transformation" is taking place behind a gauze upstage, making visibility for the audience fairly limited if the performer is laying down, flopping around etc. The raked stage should make it easier to see.

[alistermorton]

To improve audience view of the actor writhing on the floor, would be my guess.

 

EDIT : Beat me to it :-)

[ImagineerTom]

...then the kind of rake angle talked about (1:20) is really not going to make any real difference to the viewing angles of someone on the floor - you'd have to be at 30-40deg before there was any actual real tangible benefit in terms of visibility. You're better off building a small, sloping piece that the performer is specifically positioned on for this sequence (on an otherwise flat stage) or using all that steeldeck to raise up your audience on to terraced seating so that they are above the performance floor. A normal height performer laying on a 1:20 raked stage would have their head just 3.6inches higher than their feet - that's not doing anything useful at all to viewing angles but is a pain to build and perform on.

[SamDram]

...then the kind of rake angle talked about (1:20) is really not going to make any real difference to the viewing angles of someone on the floor - you'd have to be at 30-40deg before there was any actual real tangible benefit in terms of visibility. You're better off building a small, sloping piece that the performer is specifically positioned on for this sequence (on an otherwise flat stage) or using all that steeldeck to raise up your audience on to terraced seating so that they are above the performance floor. A normal height performer laying on a 1:20 raked stage would have their head just 3.6inches higher than their feet - that's not doing anything useful at all to viewing angles but is a pain to build and perform on.

 

Sorry I didn't specify, our audience seating is already tiered, so that they will indeed be viewing down onto the performance space. It's just that the area in which the 'transformation' will take place is far enough back for people seated at the front (and indeed, to some degree, the people at the back) to lose visibility.

[ImagineerTom]

then again I have to ask "WHY?"

 

the 3 inch difference the rake you're proposing would actually produce would be of absolutely no benefit to the performance whatsoever.

[kerry davies]

I think that I would go for a single 8X4 raked at a stupid (45 degree?) angle in that case. If it is for one specific effect sequence then raking the entire stage area for the whole piece and all actors seems counter-productive.

 

I would make it as specific, as isolated and as surreal as possible given what you are depicting, metamorphosis.

[SamDram]

I think that I would go for a single 8X4 raked at a stupid (45 degree?) angle in that case. If it is for one specific effect sequence then raking the entire stage area for the whole piece and all actors seems counter-productive.

 

I would make it as specific, as isolated and as surreal as possible given what you are depicting, metamorphosis.

 

That's exactly the aim. It will only be one stage deck that is angled, which will be dressed up to serve as Gregorsz' bed during the scene in which he transforms (we would just use a bed...but it's surreal, as you say)

 

The original plan was to have a crazy gradient, like 1:2 or even 1:1 (45 degrees, as you suggested), which is similar to what was used in the Royal Ballet's version.

 

I think I will have a fiddle with different angles using some of the techniques suggested above. I've also emailed ProLyte about their adjustable stage legs, to see if the feet are on ball hinges...anybody know if they are? Because that would be ideal.

[ImagineerTom]

Then for future reference you should use the correct terminology.... a raked stage is a whole stage set at an angle which vast chunks of the performance takes place on. What you actually want was just a sloping set piece thats never walked on or used in any way other than to be an angled bed - frankly I'd be inclined to bash it together out of wood rather than mess around trying to do it with deck and covering it to make it look vaguely theatrical?