Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1981 - 16

Figure 1

Barnum~eneral

ground plan.

The catwalk above the proscenium is anchored from the ceiling of the St. James Theatre as it supports not only heavy
lighting instruments but also two of the trapezes.
The St. James itself is dressed to match the design of the
show, with false architectural pieces added and original ones
covered to suggest the nineteenth-century American look of
the costumes (by Theoni Aldredge) and set. The problem of
where to put the orchestra so as to incorporate it into the circus without isolating it in the pit, while keeping the acoustics
at their best, was finally solved by putting the orchestra all the
way upstage along the back wall on a platform ten inches high
and five feet deep. A painted scrim downstage of the musicians forms an obscuring cyc when necessary, and can also
be lit to include the musicians in the action of the scene. A
partial ceiling juts out over the heads of the orchestra, not
only framing them, but also serving as a position from which to
hang special lighting instruments. The deck is covered with
"Sportstread," a rubber matting, grooved and knotted to look
like a board floor. Although the surface is hard to clean, it
gives the resilience necessary to the amount of acrobatic
work in Barnum.
Circus technicians, used to the enormous pressures of dangerous acts and having a special knowledge of circus rigging,
were valuable in the setting up and rigging of Barnum, showing no trepidation at the safe and well-planned tricks. The
Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus, a stockholder in
Barnum, sent an experienced circus rigger to help, and the
Big Apple Circus, which trained the performers, set and fixed
the trapeze positions-a very exact operation in the limited
space of the St. James. The height of the trapeze artists themselves had to be taken into account in setting the trapeze positions, and even so, the performers had to "tuck" to avoid
hitting the platforms and boxes.
Barnum uses three tightropes. There is a 4'6" wire stage
left, on which an actor walks while playing the violin. Set up by
the actor himself, this wire stretches from the stage left proscenium to the up left permanent pole, and is supported there
by a diagonal cable to the deck. The second, about six feet
14

Theatre Design & Technology

high, is a thirty-four foot long wire with a more complicated
set-up. The actors set it up themselves onstage, but the long,
thick, heavy cable and the set-up speed required, make it very
difficult to stretch the cable to full tautness. Two eight-inch diameter hollow steel poles are sunk into the floor, with a winch
below the stage to take up the pull of the wire. The winch has
a three-and-a-half ton pull, and is operated in the basement by
stagehands who make the final adjustments with a handcrank.
The wire must be completely taut since Jim Dale, the actor
portraying Barnum, has no supporting devices.
The third tightwire, farthest upstage, is 15'6" high and is
strung between the two crows' nests. Directly above this tightwire is a pulley suspended from a traveler track parallel to the
wire. The girl walking the tightrope carries a parasol with a
hollow stem. The handle of the parasol is made of a thin cable
which passes through the stem, out the top of the parasol,
straight up and over the pulley, and down to where a spotter,
hidden from the view of the audience, holds the end of the
cable (Fig. 3). On her way across the wire the actress falls,
and is lowered gently to the deck by the spotter, as though the
umbrella had caught the breeze.
Another visually effective and amusing trick is the "wild
beast" wagons. The design of the wagons is historically accurate, giving a strong period impression. The areas through
which the animals should be visible are constructed of
screens (Fig. 4). To show the "animals" moving in their
wagons, a stroboscopic effect begins, and a Xenon projector
which is suspended from the overhang above the orchestra
platform projects, at the proper angle, light onto these
screens from behind. Actors behind the wagons hold up
shadow puppets by long handles which control the mouth and
tail movements of the animals with thumb springs, and the
shoulders and hips by shifting the handles (Fig. 5).
Tom Thumb and Jumbo the elephant appear in the same
number. When first encountered, Tom Thumb is supposedly
sitting in a miniature chair, but the audience sees only the
back of this chair which is actually a two-dimensional set
piece, four feet tall (Fig. 6). Barnum, upstage, faces downUSITT /Spring, 1981

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