At the risk of going totally off-topic, what play?
To Kill a Mockingbird. I'm currently doing Barrie's
What Every Woman Knows.
I make my living in tech theater.
You'd love my regular theater then. It's a technician's dream. The main auditorium is a 500-seat arena theater. The stage is irregularly octagonal with three tunnel entraces. Most of the stage area is taken up by a free-rotating hydraulic lift assembly about 20 feet in diameter with an inner circle and outer ring that can rotate together or separately up to 30 degrees per second. The outer ring is partitioned in four 90-degree sectors that can raise and lower independently along with the center circle providing five independent lifts. It can lower to a position 13 feet below the stage level to faciilitate loading set pieces from a lower tech level ("The Pit"), and up to five feet above the stage level.
Here is Andrew (our technical director) and Jenny (who auditioned with me too for
Mockingbird) in the scenery shop.
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,600109642,00.html
Some other links
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/region.../denver28.html
http://www.svconline.com/mag/avinstall_theatre_round/
http://www.turnerconstruction.com/sa...ent.asp?d=2034
The company is the longest continuously running, privately owned and operated theater company in the U.S. as well as Utah's most popular ticketed venue (yes, even outstripping the sports events).
Some recent tours de force include:
Big River. Andrew constructed a custom-shaped 11,000 gallon pool on stage and "floated" Huck and Jim on an actual raft on actual water, with rain provided by an overhead sprinkler. The sprinkler system was reused in
Singin' in the Rain, where the title song was done pretty much as Gene Kelly did it in the movie -- water, rain, umbrellas, and all.
Scarlet Pimpernel. The lift was lowered to its low point and a parallel structure built on top. The opening scene created a carousel where the lift was raised while rotating to reveal a full-scale carousel underneath. In other scenes the auxiliary stages on top of the tunnels were connected to the upraised platform by truss bridges.
South Pacific. Enter stage covered with sand for beach, with real wave action and a working waterfall.