The Black Octagon... waidaminit... The Octagon is where Chuck Norris fights (and I think
Lee Van Cleef).
Great
venue, Dionysus!
Thanks yeah it's the smallest
venue I work at (also one of my two main gigs; I'm the Head
House Tech), its the "studio"
theatre at the Grand
Theatre (London). In "standard" configuration its has 147 seats (144 sold) tiered in 8 rows with 1' per row
rake. So yeah, tiny, however, it is my FAVORITE
venue in the city. I get a good mix of professional and
amateur theatre. Have done everything from Evil Dead the Musical (currently doing The Wedding Singer), to Hard Dramas (did The Boy in the Moon last fall; which was AMAZING), to fringe
theatre. ALMOST all the lighting positions are on catwalks that you don't have to lean WAY down on to hang/focus, the room has an a-typical shape (octagon), great
acoustics, well equipped. However backstage is very small which can cause some interesting issues with some of the bigger shows.
The best part is since its a black box we regularly re-configure it to
In the Round, Cabaret, Thrust, regular tiered,
etc.
And yes the floor surface is
masonite and each row alternates between going 8' side in
line with the standard setting
line or the opposite. Thankfully it was installed so that there is a nice
line down the centreline of the
theatre (however off by a half inch).
I say they don't make hardboard/
masonite like they used to because this stuff has held up well, even though some minor floods and has god knows how many layers of paint on it.
We've talked about replacing it for the last few years as the structure of the floor (sleepers and plywood over concrete) has warped a little, however is generally in great shape even though it's older than I am.
I know there was talk in another thread about floor pockets. Well this
theatre has 5, however only 2 of them are currently hooked up (rest were disconnected when they took out the slide
patch panel and replaced the dimmers like 8 years ago). NEVER had ANY issue with them. The covers are THICK and heavy, and actually UNDER the main layer of
masonite. When not in use we put a
masonite cutout on top, they fit tight so they won't just pop out. Certainly not like the flimsy ones you typically see these days.