Designed by DPA Architects and Theatre Project Consultants, the 1600-seat Festive Grand Theatre is a plenary hall venue, approximately 4,000m², situated in a chamber beneath the Festive Hotel, and home to Voyage de la Vie. The show was conceived by Mark Fisher as creative producer and Phil McKinley as show director and sets were designed by Ray Winkler. Stage Technologies has worked on bringing numerous Fisher designs to life, including the Millennium Dome Show in London, the award-winning Tree of Prosperity at the Wynn Hotel Macau and Las Vegas resident shows KÀ and Viva ELVIS by Cirque du Soleil. Stage Technologies has also worked previously for the Dragon’s-Den-winning show producers, Generating Company, at Universal Studios in Japan.
Engaging over 40 cast members from 16 countries, Voyage de la Vie is not short of quick-fire action and electrifying stunts and needed a theatre automation system that could keep pace. The Stage Technologies and Delstar system includes performer flying winches and point hoists, multi-line winches, lighting bars, curtain tracks, cross-stage scenery tracks, lifts, one ‘half pipe’ and two ‘quarter-pipe’ stage trucks, one ‘motorcycle carousel’ stage truck (incorporating a lift and revolve), two revolving carousels, and control consoles. The Explorer 2 stage trucks move independently and lock together in synchronous motion, creating a dynamic centrestage set piece. The grid of the venue is exceptionally low as the theatre space is situated below a swimming pool, meaning that there is no fly tower for scenery storage, so tracks feature heavily in the stage design. A substage lift along with a drop-and-slide trap are frequently utilised for dramatic exits and entrances as well as for lifting heavy props onstage, including a piano and a motorbike.
More information: Auditoria article, Voyage de la Vie trailer
