Fitzpatrick Hall - Queens' College
The Fitzpatrick Hall is one of the largest and most versatile performance spaces in Cambridge. Used for purposes ranging from college Ents to a badminton court, in its configuration as a theatre it has played host to many outstanding productions over the past 30 years.
Rehearsals
BATS shows can book the stage for rehearsals at any time - you will receive further information about this if your show is selected.
Technical information
The stage is a spacious proscenium arch type which can be raised or lowered by electric motors. Generally for performances the whole stage is raised 3' above floor level; however, it is possible to lower the front of the stage 4' below floor level for use as an orchestra pit. There is comfortable raked seating with a capacity of 208.
There are two dressing rooms, both with bathrooms attached. Access to the stage is by a door upstage left; there is a passageway behind the back tabs to get to the stage right side. Access to the audience seating is via galleries located midway up the seating; actors may use these, as well as auditorium entrances on the ground floor at the front and back of the seating.
There is also a stage manager's desk. The building is equipped with a Canford TecPro intercom system for communication between the Stage Manager and the lighting and sound boxes. TecPro units can also be placed around the stage, and in the auditorium as required (typically for a musical the sound operator's position is in the house left audience gallery)
There are 18 commonly used bars above stage: three electrically winched, internally wired lighting bars, an electrically winched house tabs bar, four spare electrically winched bars and ten hemp sets, which were refitted in November 2009 with easier to handle ropes and to increase the number of available bars. Note that the electrically winched bars are not designed for live flying of scenery, and that the flyspace places significant constraints on the size of flown set (the largest that has been attempted was around 8ft tall)
College regulations require a Queens' technician to be in the hall at all times when the stage power ring is turned on, and when flying is taking place. Please contact the BATS technical director at least a week in advance of your get-in to arrange this.
Lighting
We have about 40 lanterns, mainly Cantata Profiles and Fresnels; we also have a stock of cyc light battens (Strand Coda and Selecon Hui), Parcans and a variety of smaller lanterns. Please contact the BATS technical director for more information. These are powered from three D54 Act 6 dimmer packs and four Zero88 Betapacks, for a total of 42 ways of dimming which can be moved to near where they are used. There are 63A single phase ceeform outlets and thirteen D54 control points throughout the stage area and auditorium, offering a great deal of flexibility and the possibility of adding additional dimming. They are controlled by a Strand 520 lighting desk.
Lanterns are usually rigged on the three internally wired bars above stage (10 points on each), and on the lighting bridge which crosses the hall about half-way down the auditorium. There are also audience galleries (on the first floor) and technical galleries (on the second floor) running from the front to the back of the audience, which have bars often used for rigging lights. The technical galleries extend over the stage area and can be used to rig additional lights. The standard rig is six Source Four profiles rigged on the bridge to provide two full stage front washes.
Sound
We have an 24-channel Allen & Heath mixing desk, with two CD player inputs as well as older technologies available. There are plenty of spare channels to add other sources such as iPods, laptop computers or radio microphones. There are eight XLR microphone inputs on stage which are also patched into the mixing desk, and several others around the theatre. The hall also has a 30m 24/8 channel multicore which is terminated by a stage box at one end, for wiring up microphones for large bands or to provide additional microphone lines from stage.
Output is via two PA speakers in the auditorium. If required, extra speakers may be available for a small fee, but these provide more than enough capacity for most shows. We also have the capability to send sound to the front-of-house areas and dressing rooms (for example for paging purposes and show relay.
Please contact the Technical Directors at [
bats-td@srcf.ucam.org] if you have any questions.
Last edited Sat 1st May by Oliver Duff
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