Sweeney Todd... My Job is Cool

Vancouver Opera - "So we'd like you to build a bridge for our upcoming production of sweeney todd. There will be about 40 cast members dancing and singing on top of it and the orchestra under it."

Great Northern Way Scene Shop - "Sure we can do that."

VOA - "Oh and we have three months to do so."

GNW - "No Prob."

VOA - "And it has to drive up and down stage and spin in circles."

GNW - "………… oh………… uh……….. ok then, we better get started."

http://1drv.ms/1JSe1Wf

Sweeney Todd opens Apr 25. My Job is really Cool sometimes.

That's kinda' noisy, won't it drown out the singing?

Not sure exactly when it moves but I would assume it moves during transitions only. Or maybe the conductor will use it as an instrument. Not my department. Thing is, once motors reach a certain size they tend to get louder or prohibitively expensive. The design of the bridge was kind of open concept, otherwise we'd have insulated the towers against sound as much as possible

That's pretty awesome! What's your role, engineer/designer/fabricator?

Now, I wanna see it spin!!

I am one of about 7-10 steel fabricators (my actual title would be Scenic Carpenter as that is what I do at GNW) who worked on it. The entire set took about 25 people to build and as many as that to install. I'd say about 80 different people or more over the course of the last 6 months have had a hand in this. The bridge is only about 40% of the entire set. There are crazy things like an aluminum condo that flies in and lands on the bridge deck. There is a 96' wood bring as a back drop. There is some other cool things like a big oven for cooking people and a slide which the opera has video of on youtube.

I tried to get video of it spinning last night but the stage was too dark for my phone. This thing hauls ass and is quite surreal to be standing on top of while it moves.

And I just found out that the motors (which are quieter on the stage thanks to the drapery) will be housed in an insulated box to squash any noise.

Your job is cool, what a neat project to be involved with!

Kinda makes want to go and see the show, I'm a MechEng Tech so I seriously dig all this kind of stuff. flying aluminum condo, Heck yeah!!