The Dracula’s hoopla kicks in early. Leather-clad wenches and fire-twirling gremlins greet guests outside, while a Frankenstein-inspired parking valet directs traffic. Once inside guests are crowded into a small foyer where the door is dramatically bolted. After a brief and hilarious introduction as to what awaits us on ‘the other side’ (a cocktail bar, as it happens) a simulated storm hits the room. House lights flicker; thunder rocks the house PA and LCD screens flicker and come to life. A foreboding figure encourages us to take a ride on the ghost train, if we dare! Meanwhile, a three-piece band of animatronic skeletons vamp away and an animatronic fortune-teller conveys more bad news.

Paul Newman (Director and Technical Designer) explains later that a Guilderfluke Show Control system is driving everything in the cocktail bar. Founded by an ex-Disney engineer in the early ’80s, Guilderfluke & Co. Robotics & Sound Systems pioneered modular, off-the-shelf animation control systems and a few years later moved into digital audio repeater modules. The resulting combination can be configured to control anything from the simple to the most complex of shows and models.

VISCERAL EXPERIENCE

Having survived the terrors of the ghost train we arrive in the theatre proper, which is superbly detailed with a vaudeville-like 1920s feel. The main theatre seats approximately 450 people for dining on two levels. But the stage is tiny. So small, in fact, I find myself shaking my head in bemusement, repeatedly uttering the word how?. And after tracking down Technical Director John Taylor for a tour of backstage, it turned out to be just the right question. Here’s ‘how’:

The main stage is 7.4m wide and 2.4m deep with a 2m revolve. Off the main stage runs a 2m catwalk with a 400mm revolve and motor-driven lift that elevates to 600mm. On either side of the main stage are two smaller triangular stages, and a stage above that flies in. There are flylines aplenty — 13 to service these stages. There is no backstage as it’s all hard up against the back wall of the venue. The two side stages are accessed through small rear doors. I have never seen a stage area so fully utilised.

Against the back wall are flylines carrying painted backcloths and Dracula’s latest technical addition, the Vuepix RGB LED Curtain. Measuring 7.2m by 2.4m, the screen is full stage width and height, which was one of the criteria that had to be met. As John Taylor explains: “The owners have long been interested in the idea of a screen but until recently they’ve either not been big enough, too heavy, or far too expensive. Plus, we’ve never wanted to have a screen on chain motors. The show moves at a frantic pace and even a fast chain motor can only manage 8m per minute — we have a 2.5m move, so that’s about 18 seconds too long! We can drop the Vuepix RGB LED curtain in 2.5 seconds. That gives incredible impact. The audience is amazed when you close the curtain and re-open it an instant later to reveal a screen of this size. The screen weighs around 350kg so we had to upgrade our fly tower, but the whole thing sits on two flylines, which is pretty impressive.”

The Vuepix RGB LED Curtain is a modular system comprising 600mm by 600mm tiles at a pixel pitch of 25mm (24 x 24 pixels per tile), with the LEDs positioned on a lattice framework. Some may consider the resolution too restrictive. John Taylor explains: “The resolution of the screen is 288 by 96 pixels, but we never had any delusions of running hi-res video. The screen is used more as an effect. That said, we run a helicopter night shot of a cityscape and that’s very effective. What’s important is good video production. We edit our video in Apple’s Final Cut Pro and rather than scale it down to size, we crop the image to avoid any scaling artifacts. It’s made easier by the fact that at our resolution it’s often not the centre of the video we’re looking to use.”