The Riddle of the "Top Girls" Seating Plan
This morning I had a meeting with John Camble the Production Manager of Top Girls to work out where the acting area and seating for Top Girls was going to be located inside the AUCB Studio Theatre to comply with the Directors wishes and the Health and Safety Regulations.
Firstly we worked out the centre in accordance to the lighting grid and the fire exits. it was from these points that we worked out the acting area, predestined as 6000mm x 5000mm, and then the propsed seating plan.
The rostrum used as standard by AUCB is 2000mm x 1000mm, with an increase of 200mm with every level. Health and Safety legislation denotes that there needs to be an aisle of 1000mm to access the fire escape.
We wanted two rows of seating on the 6000mm side, and three rows on the shorter 5000mm side. Working out the total space we will take up (12000mm x 9000mm) it is now my job to work out the optimum number of seats we can fit into the Studio, allowing for rostrum and access points.
This is the rough visual guide that John made for me...
... So from this I set to work.
I used my basic ground plan that I created in AutoCAD for the Studio Theatre and removed all layers apart from the basic architectural and irremovable features (balcony, radiators, doors etc).
Putting the 6000mm x 5000mm acting space in the right place, I could then work out the clearance for seating and create a component for the rostrum and play around with them.
The end result is not as symmetrical as I'd have hoped for as due to access laws we had to move the seating arrangements off centre.
This is the final result...
John has now utilised this and will enquire about seating costs and budgeting.
This morning when I was set the challenge I felt quite daunted as I am still new to using AutoCAD and technical drawings. Once I'd laid out the area's and created the seating plan component I felt a lot more confident in my abilities. I was efficient in this exercise, took me roughly half an hour to do and John seemed please with what I had acheived, and we worked together to move the seating around as my initial drawing did not have enough clearance but was symmetrical and true to John's drawing.
