Maltbury
Bespoke staging at The Watermill
16th Nov 2007 - 11:35:41
Over the years, The Watermill Theatre has enjoyed a combination of Maltbury Staging's bespoke design and more standard equipment. Located in Newbury, the Watermill is one of only five theatres that have been awarded a National Touring remit by Arts Council England and its work entertains audiences both at home and internationally.
The theatre has always used Metrodeck Ultra, fully appreciating the benefits of the lightweight aluminium whilst on tour. ‘The Story of a Great Lady’ toured arts centres and village halls in spring and autumn of this year and is part of an outreach programme to bring theatre to communities who may not otherwise have access to live performance locally. Jen Sheperd, Assistant Production Manager at The Watermill confirms that the staging itself performed just as well, ‘prior to using the aluminium staging we used wooden rostra, which was heavier and harder to work with, and also did not last as long.’
The show ‘Hot Mikado’ used Metrodeck Ultra on specially made large castors which created a moveable platform to hold the baby grand piano. As Jen agreed, this allowed it to travel downstage smoothly, ‘crucially, the fixed direction castors also allowed it to travel without veering off our very tiny and narrow stage!’
All this was achieved within budget by using mostly standard kit with just a couple of specially designed decks at the front of the stage, proving that bespoke doesn’t always mean expensive!
Maltbury offer both touring companies and permanent venues a range of robust staging systems to suit all requirements.
Photographs by Robert Day.