FROM THE ABYSS - 1

By Wayne C. Robinson, KĀ Carpentry

A wild goose never reared a tame gosling (celtic)! The newest creative endeavor from Cirque du Soleil has yet to be tamed!

The dictionary lists "abyss" as noun: a very deep chasm, from Greek "abussos" inferring bottomless. Our abyss certainly has a bottom and KĀ performs virtually without a stage, with the performance area rising from the "pit" 208 feet. That's a twenty story building! Intermediate levels are located at 201, 189, 173, 137, 123, 108, 83, and 70 ft. All are utilized to load artist and scenery employing five standard lifts (50,000 lbs. cap. each). The infamous Gantry crane that flies the Sand Deck (300,000 lbs.) and the sliding Tatami deck are both engineering feats never employed in a theatrical venue until KĀ. The utilization of engineering firsts in this open space has set theatrical benchmarks. An achievement that both performance and technical crew take professional pride in.

Beyond the view of the KĀ audience, our technical crew labors at taming it. Throughout the process of installing this new creation, we have taken Art and Creativity drafted in Montreal and nursed and cajoled it into spectacular potential here at the MGM. The crew was imported from far ranging places, with experience extracted from touring and resident shows alike. Our numbers total a respectable 164 tech's: Automation (14), special effects (5), lighting (24), audio (7), rigging (41), props (16), wardrobe (20) and carpentry (37) meld together to produce what creation and artistry envision.

Our operational support staff of Rhonda, Kirstine and Andy sees that we get materials for production and show requirements and care for our purchasing and HR needs. Dispersed within the departments are maintenance roles that construct anything from steel to plastic and wood. They fix what we break and respond to engineering demands. The performance tech's are setting scenes, loading performers, burying artists, handing props, controlling effects, tailoring costumes, chasing artists with follow spot and a host of seemingly small cue's. No cues are small! Each and every cue, however small, brings our production closer to what Creation and Artistry originally intended to amaze our audience. With minimal lighting we are challenged to make pieces fit, to get them from one location to another, to guide and insure the safety of artists and technical crew alike and achieve it all in specific time frames. One of our first technical "run-throughs" lasted nearly 14 hours. We have, through blood, sweat and cussing, honedits span down to 1 hour and forty minutes.

As we continue to tighten and refine our production, we will share more of our technical world from the "Abyss" in following issues. When you're experiencing KĀ know that we are toiling in the "Abyss", producing entertainment standards those outside Cirque would deem impossible!

When next in attendance, see if you can spot technicians "in costume". We have three in different scenes of the show!

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