[Man Of LaMancha] Descending Stairs

[Frank]

Our theater group is getting geared up to do LaMancha next spring and I'm researching descending stairs. We will probably construct a platform with stairs mounted to it that will be hauled up using some type of mechanical winch, then tied-off against the underside of the proscenium (conveniently out of sight.) The platform would have hidden access so the audience only sees guards and prisoners come out then down the stairs.

I'm interested in looking at any pictures or hearing any ideas about the stairs and how to rig them for manual winching. I'm envisioning some type of classic looking rope with ratcheting mechanism but we're starting with a blank piece of paper. Any and all thoughts, comments, etc. appreciated! Safety is of course paramount.

Thank you folks.

[Van]

Ok, I'll have to respond to this when I get home this evening, but there are a couple of things about this show and the staging that can be simpler than you might think. part of the winching process, I have found is marking the difference between the real mechanism that mve the stairs and the Stage mechanism. Oh it might have a rope or ropes or even chains that look like they are lowering the stairs in but often the real mechanism is behind and under the stairs backstage. For the benefit of constructing a better answer how about answering a couple of basics:
What kind of Budget, ?
What materials are you comfortable with ? < Wood, Steel, Aluminum, Titanium reinforced invisible aluminum....>
What type of space, ?
Fly space and wing space and stage dimensions.
All these things are going to affect the feasibilty of a plan.

[Frank]

Hi Van,

Thanks for your reply. Well, we're a community theater in a small town in rural Maine, so re budget, probably several hundred dollars would be available. We're pretty good at adapting and improvising, etc. Wood is always easy to work with (and I'm assuming wood would be the material of choice for historical accuracy); I have several sources of rough-cut lumber and we're pretty lucky regarding donated materials. We can also weld, work with fiberglass, etc. (it's a boat-building community.)

The stage is about 24' wide with 18.5' between proscenium sides, with about 12' DS of the proscenium. A big constraint is that the proscenium is 11' high, no fly space to speak of (there's about 6' in which I was envisioning some sort of lifting winch.) There's no real wings and everything is tight, tight, tight.

I can post a picture if that would be helpful.

thanks,
Frank

[MPowers]

Rural Maine, huh? Brings back memories. I was faculty TD at U Maine Orono for a number of years in the early 80's.

Anyway, yes, a picture or sketch of Plan and/or section would be very helpful. Also, how is your spaced rigged? do you have a grid or beams or joists over head? Do you have some linesets rigged now? If so, hemp, counterweight, winched by hand or motor or.....?

As van said,there are many ways of doing this. On stages with counterweight rigging it is often simply rigged to a line set. Last time I did it the stair was self contained for rotating rep. The stair was part of a large rolling unit with air powered lift casters and the entire thing simply rolled on and off stage. The PLC controlled winch was under it and actually pulled down on the top of the stair to raise the lower end. The draw bridge lift "chains" were 2" PVC, filled with sand and heat bent to very large chain links and then emptied of sand. The "chains" went to a rope and counter weighted spot line, so when the stair rose, it "looked" like the chains were pulling it up. A bit of clanking noise from the sound man and the effect was so convincing I had other TD's and a couple of engineers ask me how I had rigged the giant chain to do the lifting and where did I get it?

Couple of quick things, Historical accuracy: it's a musical, you need historical representation, not necessarily historical accuracy. Don't get too hung up on that. Look at the script and you'll see a lot of deviation from verisimilitude in the dialogue and songs. As for wood being accurate, if your director is doing it "period", yes. But I have seen it done post apocalyptic steel and metal. Go with the vision your director and designer have but remember, a steel frame can be made to look like wood if that is a better structural design. Hope this helps.

[derekleffew]

...On stages with counterweight rigging it is often simply rigged to a line set. ...

Textbook example (literally, textbook) of a carpet hoist. Stage Scenery: Its Construction and Rigging, by Arnold Gillette.

[MPowers]

........Textbook example (literally, textbook) of a carpet hoist......

For a straight run show, Carpet hoist rigging is not needed for this use. Straight 1:1 counter weight is all the more complicated it needs to be.

If the show is in rep and the stair needs to be de-rigged and re-rigged on a daily basis, a carpet hoist is one, of many, possible ways to handle the out of balance lineset while the stair is detached.

[Frank]

UMO? I'm with New Surry Theatre in the Blue Hill area. This is our 40th season.

I can't find any good pictures on this computer, I suspect the ones I'm thinking about are on a defunct machine. I'll be in the theater space today and will post something tonight.

thanks,
Frank

[Frank]

Here's a couple of pictures. BTW, the show is not in rep and the set will remain in place until the end of the run.

First is a birds-eye view of the stage from the lighting balcony just to give a sense of the space. This set is for A Christmas Carol (one-man show, an amazing actor plays all the parts himself). You can't see the proscenium as it's blocked by flats on each side. The riser step is in-line with it however; the step is part of the two 10' revolves. Each of them has 3 flats mounted, one of which swings back towards the cyc. wall. I suspect we will end up removing at least one of the flats on the SR revolve to make more room; the platform that the stairs would be attached to could be placed in this space. We still have to lay-out sightlines, etc.



This shot is standing on one of the revolves, looking up. You can see the backside of the ugly purple curtain and the backside of the proscenium. There's about 3' between the pros. wall and the curtain. Not much room on the DS side, we would probably use the US side to mount pulleys/blocks. Given that there's only about 6' height overhead, I suspect a set of blocks would be mounted there with a winch mounted off to the side. I like the idea of camouflaging the actual lift mechanism with ropes, etc.



Same thing, different angle:



Once again, it's a blank sheet of paper. Thanks for your ideas and help!