"Titanic - The Musical" - DMTC - Tilting Stage 2.0 (Beta Release)

OK everyone, one more time, 'Nearer, My God, To Thee'!

[That's a joke, folks! ;) ]

Which reminds me, Noel sent this link discussing Five Titanic Myths, where they discuss the role of 'Nearer, My God, To Thee'. "Titanic - The Musical" opens at DMTC
in one week.



Here are some iPhone pictures from Thursday night's rehearsal (sorry, I didn't have my regular camera with me).

President of the company that built Titanic, J. Bruce Ismay (played by Adam Sartain) chastises the ship's command officers regarding what he considers to be slow speed. Poor, pilloried Ismay is also discussed in Five Titanic Myths. I particularly like the quote:

His confused and confusing behaviour on the Titanic was due to the confusion around his status - was he an ordinary passenger, as he claimed, or as the inquiries suggested a 'super-captain'? People on ships act according to rank and Ismay had no idea of what his rank was."

This is Tilting Stage 2.0 (a Beta Release at the instant, as they are in the process of making final preparations right now, in anticipation of the production's premiere next week).

They couldn't locate the winch we used in 2006, so they borrowed this one instead from Travis' workplace.

Chain

Anticipating an entrance.

We discovered during the run of Titanic 2006 that the sheer weight of Tilting Stage 1.0 eventually compromised its rigidity, requiring props to help support its weight. Tilting Stage 2.0's structure is less-dense, which should improve rigidity. Props that fold out and can be withdrawn and stowed within the stage by use of thin ropes have been built into Tilting Stage 2.0's design.

During rehearsals, it's been discovered that the ropes and pulleys controlling prop withdrawal are likely too small, so they will be replaced. Thursday night, there were issues with orderly cable winding on the winch (which wasn't as much a problem in 2006 because the stage didn't tilt quite as high). All issues that will get ironed out before opening!

Tilting Stage 1.0 had a troublesome rigidity problem (which I thought might be soluble with a metal-frame design), but the Engineers have elected to go with wood for Tilting Stage 2.0. Tilting Stage 2.0's lighter-weight design and greater length makes it more subject to longitudinal twisting than Tilting Stage 1.0 was, but it doesn't seem to impair function, as long as the props work properly and as long as the center-of-mass of the added weight (the cast) doesn't deviate too far downstage or upstage.

Tilting Stage 2.0 is about ten feet longer than Tilting Stage 1.0, which allows a more-vertical pivot point for the cable hanging over the stage's end, which allows a greater tilt for the stage, limited only by the presence of the lights hanging above the stage's end.

Into The Lifeboats!

At maximum capacity (approaching 2,000 pounds added weight), the weight is borne by the props, not the cable.

Ship's Master Builder Tom Andrews (played by David Holmes).

In the final scene, as the ship prepares for its abyssal plunge and the stage tilts at near-maximum angle, the props are elevated completely off the stage.