Technical Design Solutions for Theatre

I-Beam Tracking System

Edmund B. Fisher &Thomas P. Sullivan

 

A production at the Juilliard School required that a heavy wagon be pushed across a steeply raked deck, from offstage left to centerstage, where it was rolled onto an elevator. The full-stage show deck was raked at about 2″ per foot of run. The top deck of the 8′ × 10′ × 8′ tall wagon had to fit flush with the show deck when the elevator was lowered. This meant that tracking and placement of the wagon on the elevator was critical.

THE PROBLEM

Platforms that are rolled across a raked deck tend to drift down the rake as they travel. Even though a knife guide will limit the amount of drift, the knife will inevitably rub along the guide slot. The friction that our 1700# load would ...