Priscilla Queen of the Desert, produced by Matt Ward Entertainment, has recently finished a highly-successful run at The Star Theatre at Star Gold Coast proving their ability to produce an A-Grade production.
STAGING
The Set Design by Josh McIntosh was built by Form Imagination and featured a high shine show deck, moving modular trucks, large glitter-covered drapes, corrugated walls and of course the production’s namesake, Priscilla – a 5.5m long bus, with a few hidden surprises, including inflatable wings; alternative sliding panels to change colours and a full suite of set LX to accompany.
The build features full scenic art, steel and timber work and installation of electrics throughout the majority of pieces and was built to travel in a 40ft container making potential future remounts feasible.
Additional scenic build by Queensland’s Custom Art Finishes and A Noble Event, led by the shows Technical Director Dale Norris and Head Mechanist Danni Kinn, saw the show looking its best for the season.
“From design conceptualisation to delivery we sat at six weeks, with Form Imagination based out of Victoria winning the project and delivering right to the venue in a packed 48’ pan,” said Dale Norris. “Form Imagination supplied a production mechanist for the build and assisted in getting our teams up to speed on the intricate details of the build.
“Monday saw a full technical build of all sound, lighting and video rig ahead of a scenic build that evening. A full plot on Tuesday and Wednesday before cast rehearsed in situ Thursday and Friday for our first audience on Saturday.”
ELECTRICS
The lighting design for Priscilla Queen of the Desert is one of several extremes. The show is a journey, not only narratively speaking, but in style as well. There are massive musical numbers, intimate book scenes and everything in between.
To keep the overall weight of the rig down (weight loading of the LED walls was also a factor) a full intelligent system was used consisting of the venue in house Claypaky Alpha luminaires, supplemented with Krank’d units (Acme Glamour CM700s and AECO 5s). A very distinct and creatively cued lighting plot emerged that continually surprised the audience with dazzling eye candy and sensitive framing of the onstage action.
The MA Lighting grandMA2 lighting control is also used to control Special Effects and the LED Visuals which are running through Dataton Watchout.
The entire lighting team worked incredibly hard and consisted of:
Lighting Designer: Wes Bluff
Head LX: Andrew ‘ Panda’ Haden
Dome Design: Sarah-Jane Doig
Domes: Claire Browning, Mei You Se and Joslin Edwards
VIDEO
The video design for Priscilla comprised four separate LED screens utilising VuePix ER 4.6mm panels and was an integrated design element within the production with video design by Craig Wilkinson from optikal bloc. The rear configuration of a central 4m wide by 6m high screen and two 2.5m wide by 5m high outer screens allowed them to seamlessly transport audiences from the suburban streets of Sydney to the beautiful landscapes of our iconic sunburnt outback. An additional 5m wide by 2.6m high screen was flown throughout the performance to help shape a more intimate playing space such as a scenic flat.
The overall visual design comprised of animated photo-realistic scenic backgrounds, some pre-recorded videos of the cast and some heightened and abstracted visual effects for dream sequences and disco numbers. To maximise the vibrancy of the photo-realistic backgrounds, each scene was digitally repainted by hand with a more limited, saturated palette allowing the character of our outback to be as vivid and vibrant as possible. Limiting the colour palette also assisted in blending tone and mood with lighting and the physical set and costume design.
A particular feature, in conjunction with the iconic bus on stage, was the motion of travelling landscapes to give dynamic staging through the combination of animation and physical movements. Careful consideration was given to allow seamless cueing of travelling sequences into perspective changes so that the performances weren’t locked to intricate pre-timed video sequences.
Video playback, supplied by optikal bloc, was powered by Dataton Watchout v6 utilising a single 4K output. VuePix panels and Brompton M2/M4 Processor was supplied by production video supplier CPC Productions. Video cues were controlled by MIDI Show Control via the grandMA console except for a few numbers in the production that were driven by LTC Timecode supplied by Audio via QLAB.
Video Design: Craig Wilkinson, optikal bloc
Assistant Video Designer: Jake Lodder
Associate Video Producer: Hannah Barr
Video Production: optikal bloc
SPECIAL EFFECTS
Priscilla wouldn’t be complete without a glittery mega-mix and was supported through a special effects package supplied by Skylighter Fireworks.
Three MagicFX Swirl Fans were rigged over the auditorium for coverage of the cabaret zones filled with Priscilla Pink Mylar. Four custom air-cannon shots of mixed confetti were deployed for the bus reveal and a custom special effect design with 1000 ping pong balls and two MagicFX Stadium Shots for the ACT II show stopper – Pop Muzik.
Special Effects Designer: Dale Norris, Nick Kozij and Darren Rooney.
AUDIO
The show utilised the house rig of L-Acoustic Kudo line arrays in a Left, Right, Centre, Sub Balcony and Surround configuration with supplementary fills of L-Acoustic A15s for the wider part of the room providing Sound Designer and Operator John Taylor with stronger coverage of the room for a musical theatre setting.
Offstage chorus booths included L-Acoustic 1112Ps for fold-back and offstage side fill comprised of 15XT HiQs.
Priscilla saw John have 130+ snapshots on the Avid S6L 32 house console. Dual redundant QLAB rigs (FOH, PIT) were used for click, sound effects and timecode to keep all technical departments in sync.
There were 26 channels of RX in use with Sennheiser G4 and SK5012s in use across the cast, singing live on and off stage each night. A mixture of Sennheiser SL1 and custom frame headsets were used for the cast.
The nine-piece band led by David Piper was situated upstage and featured a range of Sennheiser and Shure units and dual keyboards running redundant MainStage rigs. Situated between two smothers and isolating loud instruments, including drums and percussion, from the majority of the band and cast and placing the entire band on hardwired ears, allowing for a reduced noise floor across the space. A key advantage of the process was replicating this setup in the final week of offsite rehearsals and sitzprobe allowed for additional time for John to dial in the team’s specific needs ahead of a limited time in situ at The Star.
JTAP supplied a full array of CCTV, monitors, stage management consoles and show control to allow the band and company to communicate on ears to each other, show control and offstage booths.
Sound Designer and Operator: John Taylor
Deputy Head of Sound: Brad Tabe
Radio Mic Technician: Hannah Tighe
Systems Technician: Jamie Muller
HAIR & MAKE-UP
The original award-winning costumes by Nullabour Productions & RGM Productions and supplied by Origin Theatrical and Centre Stage were managed by Production Costume Manager Jess Hansen with Hair and Make-up overseen by Michael Huxley.
Executive Producer: Matt Ward
Company Manager: Mat Sinclair
Stage Manager: Ben Musgrave
Assistant Stage Manager: Alexandria Vidler
Show Call: Elise Baker
Photos: optikal bloc, PIF Productions
