Pivot Point Built Into the Stage?

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So I was in a meeting today and we were talking about a revolve for the upcoming show. Our general manager kept on going on and on about how she did not think our pivot point was in the right place for what we want to do. I finally got out of her that there is a pivot point built into the deck that was put in in the 30's. It is at the exact c/c of our stage and buried by multiple layers of luan/maso/whatever else. It is apparently a 6' or 8' 2" wide pipe buried in concrete. I have never heard of a place having a pivot built into the stage. When I have done pivots before its usually either a pillow block system or the old 2 pipes, flanges, and grease trick. So, anyone else have pivots sunk into their stage?

 

[Van]

MAybe fo doing Aida ? How old is the place you're in now ? I've seen big pivots built into the floor in old Vaudeville houses to accomodate some of the massive revolves and movable scenery used in some of the old shows. No My theater does not have a pivot under the stage. I do, however have a swimming pool under the desk .

 

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The space was built in 1933 as a WPA project. Its built like a tank. My theatre is in the Saratoga Spa State Park. The entire park was built in the 1930's to treat the "ails" of the people in NYC. The building the theatre was in was built to be a research facility to look into the health benefits of the water that flowed out of the springs. The theatre was originally used as a lecture hall and entertainment venue for the city folk.

Saratoga was the first places to bottle and sell water for medicinal purposes in the U.S. A bottle used to sell for 5 dollars plus in 1930's money. Though people drive from all over to bottle the water that comes out of the ground, I think the stuff tastes like crap and smells like rotten eggs.

I do know they did shows in the theatre back in the 30's and 40's. I still have an old strong carbon arc projector off my booth. It would not surprise me if they brought in Vaudeville shows in the 30's, though the theatre was built at the very end of the Vaudeville period. My stage was originally a hemp fly and all that fund stuff.

Here is a pano I shot the other night at preview....

 

[avkid]

Oooh....historic theatre with a back story.
One of these days I should come visit.

 

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Oooh....historic theatre with a back story.
One of these days I should come visit.

You would cry at my sound system. I have two yamaha 15's that I hang off our first box boom and we have 4 TOA speakers that we use onstage. Thats it. Its an interesting space. The stage orignally had an orchestra pit that was covered in the 70's, hince the reason that my plaster line is 20' upstage of the DS lip. In the late 90's the replaced the hemp system with 10 linesets double purchase. My lighting system is 72 2.4k. dimmers that are tied into 3 company switches that I have to hard patch. My shop is an old dance studio. My trash can in my office is an old CD water/supplies can like this one... (because the building was a fallout shelter)

I only have box boom FOH lighting positions, no catwalk. Its an interesting space that has been upkept pretty well. I have a QOTD with my seats that I will post in the coming weeks.

 

[kiwitechgirl]

I don't think I've ever seen a pivot point built into the stage - thinking about it I can see how it might have made sense when it was put in though! All I can boast is a hydraulic reservoir under the stage - we're housed within the old university buildings and our spaces are in what was the engineering department. You can get into it through a hole in the floor under the seating (which the old head tech showed me the night I got concussed doing a get-out - got home and wondered if he'd showed me or if I'd imagined it!), but the other hole in the floor leading to it is DSPS under multiple layers of flooring - I've only seen it once when we ripped up all the flooring down to the beech floorboards for a show. We have an old rolling hoist still sitting across two I-beams but it doesn't move any more...

 

[Anvilx]

Sounds like a pretty interesting theater, though is it a Deathtrap really?