Technical Design Solutions for Theatre

Delbert L. Hall

A Tracked System for Flying Actors

 

For a production of Peter Pan I designed a flying system to enable an actor to fly across the stage, parallel to the proscenium, with independent control of both his height above the stage and his lateral position. The system, described here and illustrated in Figure 1, was simple to operate, reliable, and safe.

Two 30′ pieces of heavy-duty steel channel (#2800) were spliced together to provide a 60′ track. This track was hung from a batten using hanging clamps placed on 4′ centers. Tormentors were set to reduce the proscenium width to 40′, thus giving us 10′ of track offstage left and right.

Transverse movement was accomplished by a tram equipped with three master carriers (#2852) that ...