With 36 number
one hits in 26 countries and album sales in excess of 22 million,
Il Divo are one of the world’s most successful bands and currently
engaged on a world tour promoting their latest album, The Promise.
Production Director, Mark Ward of Proper Productions, met with Brilliant
Stages in December 08 to discuss the tour’s multi-faceted staging
requirements before construction of the set began in January in readiness
for the tour’s first date in February.
The stage design involves a multi level ‘necklace’ stage
composed of 2 curved arms sweeping down from a back walkway to the
main promoter’s stage and forward into the audience to a B stage,
giving several performance areas on different levels. With so many
venues on the tour, the stage dimensions and construction needed to
be flexible to allow for different configurations within each venue.
Access to the main stage is via access stairs situated towards the
rear, down which the 4 singers descend to the mid-air walkway level,
and then through to the promoter’s stage beneath. Concealed
technicians’ stairs are also positioned to either side of the
walkway levels.
Sweeping from this back walkway, down to the B stage 12-13 rows out
into the audience, run the two curved arms that surround the front
rows of seats, offering fans the chance to sit within the staging
‘for a unique concert experience’. These narrow sections
of stage are supported from beneath with a series of legs and constructed
to incorporate 4 lift-out decks allowing audiences access to the seating
area within.
“It takes only two people to lift these sections in and out
of place” explains Ward. “Road Rage, our show design team,
designed them to be high enough at the stage end for people to duck
out during the show if they need to, then they come out for the interval.
They contain no mechanical parts so they are very easy to operate
and work very well.”
