Trip to see the set builders and their killer robot!

We have been over to Liverpool Scenic Workshop to meet up with the set builder. Like most theatres now, we no longer have our own construction department, and so this work is out-sourced to other workshops which specialize in building sets for theatre. We have good relationships with several such businesses and I am looking forward to working with the people at Liverpool, because I came over to see them last summer and was really impressed with their professionalism. We are met by Bob, who has already seen photos of the set, received a ground plan and has started putting the design onto C.A.D. You may be able to pick out the outline of the revolve on the screen in the photo.

I love it when my designs get transferred onto C.A.D. because I can then be certain that if I have made some ghastly mistake in my drawings, it will be discovered before the set has been built, painted and taken into the theatre! I always used to have a slight nervousness as I made my way to the theatre on the morning of a fit-up, that something wouldn’t fit, the whole thing would be a disaster and it would be all down to me adding or subtracting a few centimetres at the working drawing stage. Since the advent of computer aided design, I can stroll in to work and pick up a coffee with a quieter mind.

The workshop is vast and very cold on a bleak January day, but well equipped with computer controlled cutting machinery besides the usual saws, drills and paint equipment. There is a new laser cutting machine which can carve solid material to a given design, which sits by the wall looking like a malevolent robot. Bob tells us that it moves so quickly that if you were to stray into its area of operations, it would kill you before you could run away! I am only prepared to go anywhere near it once I know that it is not plugged in.

Bob has no concerns about the ceiling of the office and talks about linking it through to the back of the Chinese restaurant set, with some sort of cantilevering going on. It all sounds fine to me, so I agree and try to look knowledgeable. I leave my working drawings and the model so they can get started on putting the design into the computer before they start the build.

On the way out we take a look at the set for I Ought To Be In Pictures which is now being painted and is looking good. Next Monday it will be fitted up at the Library, ready for the show to open later in the week. Meanwhile Glengarry will start rehearsals, and I will need to get the model back, so I can show it to the actors at the read-through. In my next up-date I’ll let you know how if they like it!