Touring logistics – Creating colours

Touring, especially international touring, throws up many challenges. For companies whose work is presented outdoors those problems are multiplied, explain Les Sharpe and Jo Walker of Emergency Exit Arts.
Runga Rung (translated as ‘The Colour of Colours’) was artistically an ambitious project, taking inspiration from British Asian, Caribbean and European culture, using the latest in street pyrotechnics all brought together by a multi-cultural cast working together for the first time. Moreover, the show was a logistical and technical challenge; in making the show the company had set out to create a large-scale, outdoor piece, which celebrated the strength of interculturalism in Britain.

However, moving from a creative vision to actually taking Runga Rung on the road took many months of research and planning. Runga Rung features a life-sized steel elephant, a huge mobile cinema screen, street fireworks, performers, a mobile ‘flower tower’ lantern, two stilt walkers and a giant backpack puppet. The finale is set inside a semi-circle of fire, containing a four-metre steel tower and stage, and the climax of the show is a human Catherine-wheel on a large circular steel structure. Eleven performers, eight technicians and ten volunteers from a variety of cultural backgrounds bring the show to life.

It takes a day to pack the production up, two days to construct on site, and another day to strike after the performance. The logistics of building, touring and presenting the show in a variety of outdoor locations were complex, one of the most immediate challenges was simply dealing with the vagaries of the weather.

Runga Rung began to tour throughout the UK in 2002. All the venues needed to be checked out by the artistic and technical teams prior to the tour. Health and safety is of paramount importance for a show that uses eight cases of fireworks in every performance. The team looked for obstacles such as cobbles, boggy ground, overhanging cables, etc. One particular show in Bolton required laying plywood decking along the entire route taken by the steel elephant to prevent him getting stuck in the mud.

The positive response of UK audiences to the show generated international interest. The company was booked to appear at the Imaginarius Festival in Portugal in 2003. Upon arriving, the company quickly realised that the carefully planned rehearsal schedule would need to be completely revised. Portugal was in the grip of a heat-wave and it was just too hot to work in the afternoon. So work began at seven in the morning with siestas in the heat of the day. Ultimately, the show was well received at the festival – despite the sound effects tape for the steel elephant falling off and being run over by the elephant itself.

The key to touring this type of show is to be organised but above all flexible, open-minded and positive. It is impossible to know what obstacles will be encountered at the various locations – it’s not like filling an identical black box each week, but the rewards can be all the greater for that.

Les Sharpe is co-Artistic Director and Jo Walker is Marketing Manager of Emergency Exit Arts. t: 020 8853 4809; e: [email protected];
w: http://www.eea.org.uk