I want a cage

When we first decided on doing Cagebird’s i straight away decided that i wanted a cage on stage. I felt that most people would avoid using a cage due to the difficulties of creating it. So many other people would have found ways around it by maybe suggesting that they were in a cage or changing the play completely so it wasn’t a cage at all. However i felt that this was going to be our final piece at university and that creating a birdcage would be a good task to get involved with and it would look really good on the stage. We are also a company that sells ourselves as visual theatre and visual theatre does not just have to be the style of movement it can be created with the space as well. My favourite productions that i have seen have been ones that have large sets with a lot to look at because they look more professional, They are the ones you see on West end such as Les Miserables and their ship and barricade, or the Lion king having a revolve and pride rock on stage so what is stopping us from having a 23 foot high bird cage.

The rest of the cast were unsure and the director said she would prefer a more empty stage with maybe just a door however i was set on the idea of having a birdcage. After many discussions we decided that a descision had to be made and so, as Artistic Director, i put my foot down and decided we would have the bird cage. The next stage was to discuss with the Technicians whether we could have it after i fought so hard to get the cast on side.

After meeting with the Technicians to discuss my idea’s they said it would be possible to do, all we have to do is source the materials to build it. I Met with Laura to discuss idea’s so we could then go to the director with a plan. we decided on using rope to create the cage as it could be manipulated to give more of a dome shape rather than it going from just floor to ground. we then needed measurements for the cage so we knew how much rope would be needed for the cage. we tried it out with some rope that was already around to get an idea of the performance space size.

The cage would go from the floor to the grid of the LPAC which is a height of seven meters. coming from a centre point outwards for three meters and the gap between grid and the beginning of the drop of the rope is one meter, this meant that we would need roughly eleven meters of rope for each piece of rope we used. our plan was to create seven bars using the rope giving a total of seventy seven meters worth of rope. The LPAC had twenty three meters meaning we had to somehow source a further fifty four. we looked online at DIY stores to get prices but quickly realised that the rope was not cheap and for the amount we were wanting it would be around £100 which was outside of our budget. At this point we knew we might not be able to go through with the idea due to the difficulties of sourcing rope.

After a meeting with the technicians about the rope we were pointed in the direction of the Theatre Royal, we were told that they might have some rope we could use however it may not be enough for what we want. we decided to try it anyway and if we had to cut it down to 5 pieces of rope that is what we would do. We got in contact with the Theatre Royal and they said they would give us the rope we needed. After collecting the rope we now had eighty meters of rope which would be enough to go with the scale we had originally wanted, the next step will be to build the cage on the day.