A visit to the Model Room

As promised at the end of the last session, I completed my first action this week by visiting the model room and have written about the experience to share with the group:

On Tuesday afternoon, 8th March, I had various errands to run around the Opera House, so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to make my visit to the model room. I headed over from the S+2 Yellow Core to S+4 Red Core where I stopped off at the Box Office to collect some tickets. I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by Simon and we had a quick catch up on how exhausted we were after the weekend. I then headed down the corridor, round the corner and found the model room. The first thing I noticed in the model room was how quiet it was! I found Sophie tucked around a pillar and she gave me a mini-tour of the office and showed me several of the models which had been recently used. These included the Alice in Wonderland model, one scene from the new production Tsar’s Bride and bits and pieces of Cendrillon. Sophie also showed me their software AutoCAD which they use when moving productions from one theatre to another, it all looked incredibly complicated. We also looked at the model for the production of Romeo & Juliet which Sophie was currently doing some work on and which the Royal Ballet is performing at the O2 Arena in June. I was amazed by the intricate detail which goes in to these models, for example, the model of Alice in Wonderland had a table set for a tea party with knives and forks, plates and food laid out on the table. Sophie explained that the reason why these models have to be so detailed is so everything gets made correctly and just as the designer intends.
After my little tour and exclamations of “wow”, “cool”, “really!”, I left the model room and headed back to the Orchestra Office popping my head into the ROH2 office on S+2 Green Core to say a quick “hello” to Louise.

Lucy