Summit Steel is once again supplying rigging infrastructure and associated support services for Cirque du Soleil’s acclaimed production of Alegria at the Royal Albert Hall.
It’s the 7th Cirque production that Summit has put into the venue. Alegria was also the first Cirque production that Summit was involved with in the central London venue back in 1998.
The 2007 project involved the preparation of over 100 points of rigging, for which Summit has supplied 40 of their own Lodestar hoists in addition to using the house hoists.
Summit also designed and installed truss mothergrids, lighting and drape masking trusses, utilizing nearly 400m of James Thomas Supertruss. This is needed for Cirque to produce their daring, acrobatic production in a Grade One listed venue, as opposed to staging it in their own purpose-built big top.
The Albert Hall is a challenging venue in which to work, but with so many years of experience, Summit now has the task down to a fine art.
Before Christmas a Summit team of four riggers worked a week of night shifts installing and proof testing anchor points, and repositioning house hoists in order to facilitate an efficient load-in, which commenced, as is now becoming a tradition, on Boxing Day.
Summit’s Chris Walker then led a team of 11 riggers working split shifts over a five-day period between Christmas and New Year’s to ensure the show was ready for its first rehearsal on New Year’s Day.
Walker worked closely with Cirque’s transfer project manager Andy Peat, Royal Albert Hall’s consulting engineer Bob Stagg and with Royal Albert Hall technical show manager Simon Frost.