On the Road With Ross: Detroit Opera

Technical Director Ross Rundell is back with another installment of his blog series, On the Road With Ross! Follow along for monthly updates of an insider’s look at the production rental world of Glimmerglass. To read his previous blog posts, click here.

Hi y’all, this month Kyle Ludwig, Assistant Technical Director of Scenery, traveled to Detroit Opera for La Traviata. This was a relatively short rental: he was there for load-in from October 8th – 10th and he returned on October 28th to assist with the load-out. Rental length can vary greatly depending on the renting company. Some companies have shorter runs than others, and on top of that, most opera and theater companies aren’t the only ones using the theater space at any given time. We are lucky here at Glimmerglass that we own our performing space! 

Due to the intense schedule of the summer we use the theater solely for the purposes of our summer Festival. However, other venues might only have a 2-4 week window that is available to a production. Most productions need at least a few days of load-in, and week or so of technical rehearsals before opening. That means there might only be the opportunity for one or two weekends of performances. Some larger companies have access to their theaters for longer, and therefore are able to run for longer periods of time. Some large companies are the primary users of their space and able to operate in a repertory model, with two or three shows taking place over two or three months. The intricacies of planning seasons is a complex undertaking, and can vary heavily depending on a number of factors that may go unseen by the general public. For our part, we try to accommodate all lengths of runs with our rentals, and we try to provide as much technical information up front so that companies know the needs of production time.

While I do travel with the majority of our shows, it would be a little overwhelming to travel with all of them, so there are a few shows that I assign to other members of the Technical Direction department. La Traviata is one of the shows assigned to Kyle. He has a lot of experience with this show, as this is the fifth time he has taken it out in the last five years. Kyle reported that the load-in went very well. The only really difficult part was that their loading dock has a right angle before going into their theater. If you remember our production of La Traviata, the periaktoi that form the back wall are quite tall…Twenty-three feet tall to be exact.

Periaktoi (singular: periaktos) are rotating, triangular set pieces used in theater to change scenes quickly. Each face of the triangle can have a different backdrop or scenic element, allowing for seamless transitions by simply rotating the periaktos to reveal a new scene. 

Each side of the three sides comes off as one piece and may be stacked on top of one another horizontally for travel. This results in a 23’x4’ rolling stack. Making that right angle corner onto the loading dock was difficult, however every company has unique challenges like this. And the crew at Detroit had encountered this problem before, so they already had a system in place to turn large items and send them into the theater. 

Once inside, they began the process of assembling the scenery and it was smooth sailing. Until next time!