Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2004 - 54

like Disney's Lion King, take up to 33 tractor-trailers to get from
one city to the next. Show trailers are customized with special
equipment to protect sensitive gear and to make loading and
unloading quick and easy. Show drivers know the twisting back alleys and oddly-configured loading docks at old municipal theatres
and new state universities. Show carpenters, traditionally the production team members responsible for supervising transportation, build sets specifically designed to travel easily, and use
CAD software to optimize packing and loading.
So, your Hamlet is going to visit other hamlets, and it is
up to you to make it happen. Where to start?
There are a number of questions you will need to answer,
and as with most complex scenarios, the answer to any one of
these questions is dependent on the answers to the others. The
obvious and simple questions, like, "how many trucks do I
need, and how big do they need to be?" turn out to be not so
very simple. In fact they lead to lots of other questions, including, but certainly not limited to: How much stuff do I really
have, and will it fit into the theatres on our itinerary? Is there
room on stage? Can it fit through the doors and into the elevator? Is there a place to store all our empty boxes?
And speaking of theatres, where are we going? Is there a
firm itinerary? Are changes likely or possible? How far apart
are the stops and how long will it take to get there? Have we
factored in traffic and weather delays? Are there restrictions
on times and routes for trucks in town? Any low bridges, tunnels or underpasses?
These first two questions: "what do I have?" and "where
am I going?" are deeply intertwined. Experienced road warriors will tell you that, most of the time, the key determining
factor boils down to this: How much time do I have between
curtain down in one town and curtain up in the next? How
much time do I have in the theatre for the unloading, set-up
and tech rehearsal? Ultimately, the time factor will dictate how
much you can bring with you (and hence, the number of
trucks) on the tour. Looked at the other way, the amount you
have to carry and the time you need for setup and tech will dictate the possibilities for your show's itinerary. So whether you
are designing the production to tour or taking an existing production on the road, the same considerations apply, although you obviously have more flexibility if you are starting from scratch.
But the questions don't end there: Are there oversized or
awkwardly shaped pieces? Do they need special padding, crating, climate control or other protection? Is it on wheels, or
will people have to carry it? What does it weigh? Will we need a
forklift? Who will supply it? Does the theatre have a loading
dock? Can tractor-trailers fit into the dock? How many at a
time? How high are the docks? How low are the ceilings? Do I
need a liftgate? Ramps? How long and how strong? Is there
room on the truck for the ramps? Will the same ramps work
for all theatres?
Is there a plan for setup and strike? Do we know which
pieces we'll need first, and which can wait until the end? Who
will do the loading and unloading? How many stagehands will I
need, and for how long? Are we playing union or non-union
houses? Which unions?

Norma Molitch Deull
President, Clark Transfer, Inc.
When I was growing up, shows only toured to major cities, and
when they did, they traveled by train. The theatres were built with
railroad sidings, and the people who loaded the scenery were called
"car-loaders." In 1948 my father petitioned the U.S. Government
Interstate Commerce Commission, which regulated interstate
trucking, to permit the transportation of theatrical productions by
road. He argued that this would allow live performances to reach
parts of the country that had never seen anything like Broadway
musicals, ballets, operas and symphony orchestras. Eventually the
ICC agreed, the "bus and truck" business was born, and the cultural
landscape was changed forever. Today, the performing arts are an
integral part of American communities large and small. If my father
were alive today, I don't think he would believe it.

From 1949 when the first "bus and truck" show hit the road, until the thirty-truck
mega-tours of the 1980s, theatrical tours were typically one or two trucks: often
one carpenter truck and one electric truck. Many small tours and regional
productions still work this way.

Ralph Hoffman
Executive Production Director, Kirov Academy of Ballet
Former Director of Production, Wolf Trap Farm Park
When the Metropolitan Opera came to Wolf Trap we'd do four
operas in four nights. Open air. As an opera was playing, we'd be
backstage disassembling the show, trooping right out to the loading
dock and onto the trucks. During intermission the set pieces were
falling down onto the deck, the guys were running the flats to the
trucks, the air was pushing the main curtain out so the audience
knew something was going on backstage. During the acts the trucks
would shift, quietly! Talk about an army of ants, and organized
chaos! You have to think about this. Each opera was six trucks going
out, and six trucks coming in, all within the space of three hours,
while people are singing and dancing and the orchestra is playing.
In the meantime the Clark Transfer trucks are going in and out and
being loaded and unloaded. And I used to stand back and say, "This
is not happening." But it did happen, night after night after night!
TD & T

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2004