Ambitious Stage for ‘New Year’ in The Dream Tent
Birmingham Opera Company is a renowned professional opera company, known for their innovative productions. Often staging shows in unique and unconventional venues; for their summer 2024 production of ‘New Year’ by Michael Tippett, the company transformed The Dream Tent. Located at the former site of the Wholesale Markets in Smithfield, the large circus tent became captivating performance space.
We were initially approached to provide a number of circular stages and a large, raised orchestra platform, on a dry hire basis. Thanks to our extensive stock of circular stages in various sizes, we were able to supply equipment to meet the production’s needs.
As the production design evolved, additional performance platforms, control positions, and accessible viewing platforms were added, with adjustments made to stage heights and dimensions. Given the increasingly complex nature of the design and the limited build time, we were able to support the production with additional crew, project management and scaffolders to build all of the structures. What began as a single 45ft artic load of kit eventually grew to require three trucks.
Our team adeptly adapted to the evolving needs of the production, re-designing, re-drawing and re-quoting platforms as required.
With our extensive experience in building structures, both indoors and outdoors, it was straightforward to construct and set up in a circus tent on uneven ground.
We are thrilled to hear that the production received excellent reviews.
