Theatre Design & Technology - Feb 1966 - 7

To create a theatre in the wi de expan ses of the
arena, the No.1 batten is lowered from the theatre
grid by means of the control panel at the floor
level. Meanwhile, the thirteen large curtain boxes
are carried into the arena by fork lift. Batten No.1
consists of two L-shaped truss pipes located at the
right and left forward corners of the stage area,
respectively. To these are attached, by tie-lines,
the 85-foot masking legs. Then the powered batten
is raised, pulling with it the 85-faot legs from their
boxes. At their high trim, along with the large
valance curtain on batten No.2, these create the
stage hause or masking surface. It is 85 feet high
by 96 feet wide. We are contemplating the addition
of a 25-foot wing at either side, bringing this mask·
ing surface ta something approaching 150 feet in
width. There are also four battens for use with
borders and legs which complete the house set, plus
a backdrop of dimensions comparable to the front
masking.
The theatre's soft proscenium masking thus consists of a grey velour curtain 85 feet in height,
and 96 feet in width which masks in or boxes off
the theatrical gear which might be overhead or
which might be placed on the 48 foot by 88 foot
stage platform. It requires about one hour of effort
by eight men to put the masking curtains into position. For strike, the crew steers the lowered curtains
back into their boxes. We were apprehensive about
the effect of continued storage of these curtains,
and anticipated that wrinkles might be a considerable
problem. We debated, for this reason, about the
choice of materials, but settled finally on velour.
We find now that even though the material may have
been stored for weeks, wrinkles hang out in a
matter of hours. Normally, we are able to get the
curtains in the air long enough before an event so
that the wrinkles have disappeared by the time the
curtain goes up.
Four of the battens which support borders and legs
also are equipped with traveler tracks. In addition,
there is a traveler at the proscenium for use with
the house main, operated by hand ropes.
The stage is equipped with five permanently-located
light battens which may be lifted to or lowered from
the theatre grid. When the theatre is not in use,
Three views of theatre grid lighting units showing two·lomp
PAR 64 reflector lamp units (148 units total), and R·80 1,000 these (as well as other battens) are pulled hard
watt mercury vapor reflector units (158 units totol)
against the grid to make them less conspicuous.
Photos: PROGRESSIVE ARCHITECTURE
In use they are lowered to a point between 30 and
40 feet above the stage. Each of the five light
battens has a row of 36 border lights wired in nine
circuits. In addition, the two forward light battens
have additional rows of 36 "eyeball" fixtures
which also have nine circuits. These eyeballs may
be revolved or rotated to focus on various areas of
the stage. The battens are designed by the firm of
Lighting by Feder, and they have proved successful
A di sadvantage of thi s stage has been that when at the Assembly Hall except that the original VNSP
it is used by dancers it creates an undesirable lamps did not have sufficient spread to blanket the
rattle. We have since bui It rubber-mounted sleepers, stage, and thus left dark lines between lighted
duplicating those which were part of the basic areas. The staff has switched to medium floods of
equal wattage and the results are excellent.
construction of our basketball floor.

February 1966

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