LISBON, Portugal – Working once again with designer Mark Fisher's studio, Stufish, Brilliant Stages has supplied three inflatable puppets and a circular projection screen for Roger Waters The Wall Live tour. The company provided both the puppets and automation representing the Teacher, the Wife and the Mother for the tour. Each is over 9 meters tall, and equipped with inflatable skins from Air Artists. The Teacher and Wife puppets required extensive animation, so Brilliant Stages devised a system of cradles and winches to facilitate this. The puppets are suspended by fine steel wire ropes attached to individual electric winches mounted into a compact cradle. The winches move the limbs independently while the cradle carrying the winches also slews to enable the puppets to turn 180°.
Brilliant Stages used customized control systems from Andy Cave of Kinesys for the cradles and winches.
The largest puppet, the 10-meter-high Mother, is seated, yet is required to move her head from side to side. Brilliant Stages created the movement using an electric motor driving a toothed-belt pinion onto a slew ring within the neck.
Working alongside Lee Threlfall, Brilliant Stages also incorporated LED light sources to illuminate the eyes of each puppet. RGB LED light engines with custom heat sinks and enclosures were built into a customized hanging frame suspended inside the head of each puppet. The frame also houses power supplies and control modules.
In addition, the Teacher has two 600mm-diameter custom light boxes incorporating RGB LED strips that represent the white of the eyes. Power for the eyes is derived from the automation cradle using cable reelers, with data control supplied by wireless DMX.
Each of the three puppets travels in its own dolly designed for ease of transport and rapid installation.
"The puppets are the most important elements to us, as they are a focal point within the whole Wall performance," says Brilliant Stages' Tony Bowern. "We are very happy that Mark Fisher and his team considered us for this crucial role based on past work we have done with them."
Working in collaboration with production manager Chris Kansy, Jeremy Lloyd of Mark Fisher Studio and The Wall Tour's head rigger, Dave Rowe, Brilliant Stages also designed and supplied a 10.75-meter-diameter truss circle. This is suspended center stage and supports a 9.3-meter-diameter Gerriets Optilux projection screen.
The truss is designed to support the weight of 24 Vari*Lite VL3000 Wash moving lights mounted around its perimeter, and it is clad by 12 aluminum and plywood fascia panels.
The truss and screen are assembled horizontally before being raised to the vertical position with the aid of a rolling skateboard and suspended from three customized flying points.
The circular structure is fabricated from non-standard truss formed of space-saving triangular stacking sections, which pack into only two touring carts.
Following on from 2010's American leg, the European leg of Roger Waters The Wall tour kicked off in March at the Atlantico Pavilion in Lisbon and continues through its final date at Milan's Mediolanum Forum in July 2011.
For more information, please visit www.brilliantstages.com.
Photos courtesy of Mark Fisher/Stufish
