Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1981 - 11

Technical and Production
Staff for The Royal Opera House
(as of 9 August 1979)

General Administrator
Sir John Tooley
Technical Director
Tom MacArthur

Wig master
Ronald Freeman

Assistant Technical Director
Michael Thomson

Production Manager
Jeffrey Phillips

Technical Managers
David Enraght (house and
running crews)
Hazel Sharples (Sadler's Wells
Royal Ballet)
John Seekings (new
productions)

Assistant Production Managers
Peter Courtier (scenic studios)
Norman Dixon

Lighting Manager
Bill McGee
Assistant Lighting Manager
Bill Besant

Wardrobe Director
Janice Pullen
Scenic Building
Tom Walker
Property Maker
Michael Whiteley

Sound Engineer
Eric Pressley

Costumes
Audrey Ward
Susan Kempster
Gabriella Mustillo
Gordon Hutchings
Robert Gordon
Margaret Beck
Edward Percival
Jean Percival Uewelry)
Jennifer Adey (millinery)

Armourer
Terry Keen

Dyeing
Valerie Connell

Chief Machinist
Ted Pursey
Chief Electrician
William Quid
Property Master
Peter Fea

Figure 5 Interior of storage shed in Kent

or propertymen, although certain personnel become permanently attached to electrical tasks and others to props or
flying.
Lighting for the performances is always done on the basis
of an act of an opera or a single ballet at a time. Therefore, except for permanently focused front-of-house instruments, the
electrical crew can refocus and re-gel all 250 permanently
mounted instruments on the numerous lighting bridges and
galleries during the intermissions. This requires a very extensive plot and formidable memory control. The control switchboard is a Strand Century Lightboard originally designed for
repertory lighting at The National Theatre. It contains 240
channels patched to 1003 load circuits for a total connected
load of 1.25 KVA. Unlike American practice, in which a plot is
deisgned for a given production, English houses provide the
designer with a permanently hung array of instruments and a
permanent board in the theatre. Of course, extra equipment
can be added to the basic plot as the individual designer sees
fit.
Production costs are similar to those in the U.S., but on the
whole, labor is slightly cheaper in Britain. The basic price for a
new opera production this season averaged $240,000. The
Royal Opera House sets very high standards for itself and
does not stint in funding for excellent artists, directors, designers, well-made settings, and extremely well-tailored costumes which will stand up to many years of performance at
Covent Garden and on tour.
The Royal Opera has over 100 operas in its repertory and
the Royal Ballet has a similar number it can stage. All of the
settings and costumes for this extensive body of work are
stored in and around London. Operatic works not in the current repertory are kept in specially designed storehouses at
an unused hop farm in Kent, except for painted drops which
can be stored under the stage. The storehouses each provide
40,000 square feet of storage space and are based upon prefabricated aircraft hangars (Figs. 4-6). The inside height of the
buildings is 24'-0",
It may truly be said of The Royal Opera and Ballet that they
resemble an octopus whose several arms reach out from the
main body and bring in the necessary elements required for
the continued growth and health of the parent body. Without a
well-planned and operating executive structure in the theatre
plus a network of shops, service personnel, and storage facilities, the human energies of both performance companies
would be hard pressed to maintain the very high standards of
production established throughout many years of performance.

Figure 6 Interior of storage shed in Kent

USIIT/Summer, 1981

Theatre Design & Technology

9
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