Erecting the marquee |
Blenheim Palace was only almost perfect. Neither its Great Hall nor Long Library were large enough for the World Premiere, so Travis hired Maidstone Marquee to erect a theatre on the south side of the palace. With Travis in Coventry, it fell to Peter Anderson to supervise construction. Width and length requirements were never really a problem, and by raising the platform and extending it over the stairs, a crawl space was created and used for heating ducts and wiring. But this was the highest marquee Maidstone had ever been asked to erect, and once up, it still had to be carpeted, wired, draped and lined! |
The finished theatre marquee at Blenheim Palace |
The "stage" was barely up when the lighting crew arrived. Set designer and crew arrived next, working around the electricians — and then the seating arrived! And everyone had to work quickly to clear the way for camera and sound crews! In the end, the marquee looked a lot like a Hollywood sound stage! Production designer Shaun Moore said it was an “enormous canvas hangar. To call it a marquee would be to underestimate its immense proportions. It was large enough to house the 'Spruce Goose' itself, let alone a woodland scene side by side with an orchestra, in front of hundreds of tiered seats, and under a huge lighting rig.” |
Cook Tent at the south end of the Long Library |
November in Oxfordshire can be cold, especially at night, so heating was a vital concern. The red cannisters in the photo contain propane to power the huge plants installed to heat the marquee and to provide fuel for the mobile kitchen used by The Admirable Crichton to prepare the banquet. The production crews, from construction to operations, were all superb and by noon on this chilly November 1st, despite all the trials and tribulations along the way, everything and everybody was finally ready for the World Premiere Benefit Performance. |