Technical Design Solutions for Theatre

Single-Orientation Curved Tracking

A. D. Carson

FIGURE 1: VARIABLE-ORIENTATION AND SINGLE-ORIENTATION TRACKING, COMPARED

FIGURE 2: RIGGING FOR VARIABLE ORIENTATION

Of the several curved-track sets designed for the Pittsburgh Public Theatre’s tight, extended thrust stage, Ray Recht’s Old Ladies Guide to Survival in 1992 was the first to require single-orientation wagon movement. The wagons used in earlier productions had, like the unit drawn at the left in Figure 1, turned to face in a new direction as they rounded their tracks’ curves. Ray wanted ...