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Theatre Truck |
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This August we presented 3 plays in our Theatre
Truck at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe, located right in the heart of the Fringe, at Charlesfield, off Bristo Square.
As you can imagine, Theatre Truck created a lot of
interest, and impressed audience and reviewers alike.
Plans are being made to visit many Arts Festivals and
Events next year and we will also be displaying the Truck, called 'The
Sylvia Miles' at this years Showman's Show in October.
For a tour of the Truck go to
Brighton 2006!
The following is a short history of how the truck was created
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| The original plans were
offered up to licensing in Edinburgh in January 2004. There was not much
point in building it if it would not get a licence. After consultation with
John McNeil, only the following change was required. We needed to increase
the leg room between the seats. This would reduce capacity to 40 seats.
However, I was also worried that having only one exit and entry door meant
crossing the stage. This would cause problems for late comers and for anyone
who wished to leave. So a rear entrance was designed, with the side entrance
now only being used for wheelchair access and an extra emergency exit. |
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I finally found the right trailer at
G H Lucking. Number GHL 131. It had
spent many years taking scenery around the country and was also used by BBC
Scotland. Modern trailers are not as wide, and I needed one atleast 2.4
metres for my plans to work. |
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I thought that it was in good condition. It didn't
leak, but I soon discovered the rust. You can get a lot of rust on a 40 foot
trailer. |
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But it was already the Perfect Stage.
I had planned for the conversion work to be carried out
at Adrian Snell Production Services near Plymouth, but this proved
impractical. Fortunately, Mark Dooner, at GH Luckings allowed me to work on
the Truck in their yard in Reading. To try to reduce costs, I decided to do
most of the work myself. The worse day was the first. I had 6 weeks until
the truck needed to be finished and taken to The Riverside Studios for final
rehearsals. Where do you start. Fortunately Alex Hester helped that day, and
we started on the rear entrance
Everyday, a bit more got done. But everyday I got a bit more behind. More
friends were called upon to help.
To be continued......
Please contact Nick on nick@theatremaketa.co.uk if you wish discuss
space availability, charges and services
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