University of Johannesburg's Fantastic Theatre Part 3

Backstage Areas
 Continuing with our exploration of the University of Johannesburg Theatre's facilities, we visit the backstage areas.

Off of the Greenroom is the entrance to the scenery storage hall. The laundry room is just to the right from the middle of this hall. This storage hall features natural light coming from the recessed skylights up left.

This is a better view of the skylight. The height of this storage hall can accomodate opera-sized scenery storage.

The loading door into the storage hall may look small, but it is larger than the opening of a truck, and that's all that matters.

Denis Hutchinson (Theatre Consultant, Lighting and Scene Designer) points out some of the details required in a single-purchase fly system.



This is a close-up of the type of rope-lock typically installed in theatres. This theatre uses real hemp rope. The humidity factor is not so large here to consider using a synthetic rope.



This is a close-up of the weights in a fly arbor. The weights are safely locked into position using the thumbscrew sets. The weights are also cast with the initials of the University of Johannesburg Arts Center on them. (UJAC). Notice how they dovetail into each other on each of the stacks.

Backstage is the usual accumulation of theater materials, including this bright yellow spiral staircase. Beyond the yellow staircase are the ropes of the fly system.

The ladder to the fly gallery's loading rail has a stop at the first and second floors. This stop shows how well-lit with blue running lights the technician access areas are.

The middle level catwalk of the fly gallery shows both the working (white)  and the runing lights (blue) being used. The loading rail is one more flight up.

The previous post covers the public, administrative and performer areas. The next post will cover the lighting areas. The UJ Theatre architectural tour was very thorough.