Jands  has installed a range of staging systems for a newly constructed traditional proscenium theatre at the Emmanuel College located in the suburb of Carrara, less than 5km from the Gold Coast CBD.
 
Emmanuel College is a Christian school for approximately 1450 students from Prep to Year 12 with an affiliated/on-campus kindergarten. The school has recently completed the construction of a traditional proscenium theatre complete with fly tower, motorised hoists and a motorised stage platform.
 
Phil Viney of Design Stage turned to Jands for their expertise in designing the staging aspects. Jands supplied the motorised show flying system, motorised lighting bars, motorised stage platform, front of house curtains and stage drapes.

Phil explains that the school required a professional, dedicated theatre and not an auditorium for assemblies. The new auditorium seats approximately 460 people with a separate lighting control room at the rear and a sound control position included as a permanent addition to the central seating bank at the rear of the auditorium.
 
While the first two rows of the audience area nearest the stage are located on the motorised stage platform, the remaining seating is moderately raked on a single level.

The structural proscenium opening is 12.0m wide x 5.5m high with a stage height of 1000mm. The stage floor is sprung timber flooring comprising of a fixed forestage section 1200mm deep, and an additional curved thrust stage area provided by the motorised stage platform extending about 3300mm into the auditorium.

Highlights of the staging equipment installed at Emmanuel College:

  • Gala Spiralift system, a highly compact lifting system chosen for the motorised stage platform
  • Spiralift requires relative low-power motor drives and can be configured easily in modular designs to suit any platform geometry
  • Five main over-stage rigging beams spaced 3.1m apart, run parallel to the centre line of the stage
  • Rigging beams provide the main structural support to the motorised battens that support drapes, lights and adjustable borders
  • Additional FOH beams provided at a lower level cater for any flown equipment over the forestage area including FOH temporary rigging, projectors and FOH speaker positions
  • Four motorised bars provided for lighting bars with static battens included for the required complement of masking drapes over the stage
  • Six ASM high speed motorised rigging bars allow for show flying of scenery, backdrops or other suspended equipment
  • ASM hoists controlled via an ASM Genesis LC8 control system, which allows curtains, backdrops, scrims, cycloramas and scenery props to be flown in and out during a performance
  • Each batten has maximum SWL of approx. 250kg and adjustable flying speeds of 150mm/sec - 1.5 m/sec
  • Four Jands JLX PRO lighting bars positioned over the stage, raised and lowered via four Jands H500PVX 500kg SWL hoists
  • Adjustable masking used to alter the proscenium geometry to a smaller format when required
  • Main front of house velvet drapes supported by a motorised bi-parting drape track system
  • Cyclorama dead hung at the rear of the stage together with two sets of manually operated tab-tracks