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project management for theatre and the arts
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Set Building / Design
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We specialise in metal framed sets which are lighter and stronger than wood, and hold their shape better. We can realise your ideas, and assist and advise with designing both from an engineering or an artistic point of view, as required. We have scenic artists available, and can manufacture any size of set, both for fixed runs and touring. Our touring sets are designed to break down into easy two man lifts. Examples of our work are:
The Bartered Bride
Carmen
Rigoletto
All At Sea
Oliver!
Madam Butterfly
Please click or scroll down for further details:-
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The Bartered Bride
This was engineered by TPM and consisted of a fully flown set consisting of 16 aluminium frames, 4.5m tall by 1.5m wide, flown from aluminium tracks. Each frame was covered in painted canvas and flown from a central pivot attached to a bogey on a track. This allowed them to move on and off stage, and turn round or slide behind each other. A 12 m wall (8 frames) could track off into 2.5m wings. There were three sets of tracks and a painted backcloth. The photo shows the midstage set of frames when joined together. The tracks were connected with up and down aluminium girders when flown, to give extra stability to the whole assembly.
On tour, it was rigged on hemps, counterweights, or fixed grids, being fitted up in a four hour session.
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Carmen
This was a box set consisting of a raked stage, side walls, opening back wall and roof. The set was about 8m across the front. The set was steel framed with solid pine openwork planking, planed down to decrease the weight. The roof was aluminium framed, also with openwork planking. It broke down into sections easily manageable by two people, and fitted up in four hours.
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Rigoletto
This set was a U shaped steel balcony that went all round the edges of the space. The balcony had a railed front and 2.4m flats at the back. Under the balcony were caged walls that swivelled out across the space. There were three sets of treads up to the balcony.
The set was constructed entirely in steel with punched steel decking. It broke down into staging units 2.4m by 1m, which had removeable 2m legs fitted to them. The legs fitted into metal plates at their base, which spanned each pair of legs, thus providing stability. Once the staging was up, the metal cage units could be fitted together and hinged onto the set, and the handrails and flats fitted. The cage units had jockey wheels to support their weight. It fitted up in three hours, and each unit was handleable by two people.
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All At Sea
This set was designed by Bob Wallbank and built by us for Theatr Powys. It consisted of a section of the deck and gunwale of a fishing boat that was fitted to rockers. Tipped downstage, it formed a raked stage which was used as a pier and groyne (with added uprights continuing the gunwale), and a bedroom. On its rockers it became a boat at sea, and could be balanced at any angle, depending on where the actors stood on it. It could also be rocked by the actors. Tipped upstage, the underside of the framework formed the inside of a whale. This main unit was triangular, 3m by 4.5m.
The whole unit was enclosed inside a blue box consisting of serge attached to a fixed metal framework which provided masking and lighting positions, and toured to community venues. It fitted up in under two hours.
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Oliver!
This set was designed by Bob Wallbank and built by us for Newtown Musical Theatre. It was used for a week’s run at Theatr Hafren, and designed largely around existing pieces of scenery. It consisted of a raised walkway across the back of the stage with a set of blacks and a painted sky cyclorama behind, and blacks in front which could be split into sections to reveal different parts of the walkway. Downstage was a thin painted cloth of bricks and panelling, and a raised stage (2m by 3m) on wheels that could be positioned anywhere. The wing masking flats were painted as metal columns. Scene changes were fluid and part of the action.
Certain items were built for the production, but a large proportion were designed around existing equipment, so the final cost was comparable with hiring a commercial set. It had the huge advantage however of being designed for the particular production.
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Madam Butterfly
This set was engineered by TPM and consisted of a raised stage of steel rostra clad in planked floorboards, with false wooden edges to make it appear it was raised on baulks of wood. The staging contained traps. Spanning the rostra mid stage was a steel framed gantry which contained a frosted polycarbonate wall set in a steel frame. The wall pivoted about it's central point, and could spin through 360°. The pivots consisted of bearings top and bottom. On the stage surrounding the set were fiberglass cased foam rocks.
The rostra broke down into easily manageable sections, as did the flooring. The screen broke down into 3 sections, as did the gantry. The gantry and screen were assembled in situ on the staging and raised into position by a tabernacle which had bearings at the base of each gantry leg. In this way, nothing in the set was more than a two–man lift, and the whole set could easily be assembled by a crew of 4, without recourse to any venue equipment or flying.
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