{"id":3017,"date":"2008-07-21T20:56:01","date_gmt":"2008-07-22T02:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conradaskland.com\/blog\/2008\/07\/zaia-theater-and-set-fact-sheet\/"},"modified":"2009-02-09T02:32:39","modified_gmt":"2009-02-09T08:32:39","slug":"zaia-theater-and-set-fact-sheet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/zaia-theater-and-set-fact-sheet\/","title":{"rendered":"ZAIA Theater and Set Fact Sheet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Information on the Zaia Theater for Cirque Du Soleil&#8217;s show at the Sands Venetian, Macau (SAR) China.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For me, ZAIA is an inner journey through time and space. The set, in which arcs and perspective lines predominate, evokes the viewpoint of a human eye looking through a large observatory telescope. &#8221;<br \/>\nGuillaume Lord, Set Designer<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Theatre<\/strong><br \/>\nThe ZAIA Theatre is reminiscent of ancient architectural telescopes such as Jaipur in India and the vast stone Mayan observatories of Central America. It is not a planetarium as such, however it contains many visual cues and references that add to the show\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s underlying theme of cosmic exploration.<\/p>\n<p>In keeping with the primary theme of a journey into space, verticality is an important component of the show and the theatre was designed with a higher than 80-ft\/24-meter ceiling and the set elements are intended to recreate the experience of being in space \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an experience that is both mysteriously alien and strangely familiar. This is a timeless journey from through the stratosphere and beyond, while keeping an eye on Earth.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Set<\/strong><br \/>\nWhen the audience enters the theatre, one of the main set elements, a gigantic sphere, appears to be a chandelier and the house is illuminated by light sources at ground level, creating the effect of a deep dark cave. When the sphere is revealed in all its constantly-changing glory following the opening number, its full scope and the effect of its trajectory over the heads of the audience is nothing less than stunning.<\/p>\n<p>The proscenium is made up of several layers that create a sense of depth through perspective lines and curves made of bronze that converge on the single focal point located at the centre of an enormous sun-like gong set against the backdrop, known as the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Star Drop,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which recreates the night sky with 3,000 fiber optic \u00e2\u20ac\u0153stars.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Designer Guillaume Lord used a star map to give the Star Drop an accurate representation of the constellations at the exact location of the theatre.<br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\nSome figures<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> The theatre has a capacity of 1,852. UPDATE Feb 8 2009: Am told the seating capacity is 1801.<\/li>\n<li> The Proscenium is 88 high and 97 Wide.<\/li>\n<li>The 12,221 sq. ft. Star Drop measures 121 x 101.<\/li>\n<li>The polished bronze-plated Gong Sun has a 20 diameter.<\/li>\n<li>The 25 diameter Sphere moves on three axes. It consists of an aluminum exoskeleton covered in Lexan and weighs 4,000 lbs. It contains 6 projectors that beam integrated images through a full 360 degrees.<\/li>\n<li>Above the audience the Oval Track transports performers and set elements (such as the 600-lb ice blocks) on 148\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 x 95\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 5 chariots that weigh 800 lbs.<\/li>\n<li> It takes 30-40 backstage technicians to operate the set.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Information on the Zaia Theater for Cirque Du Soleil&#8217;s show at the Sands Venetian, Macau (SAR) China. &#8220;For me, ZAIA is an inner journey through time and space. The set, in which arcs and perspective lines predominate, evokes the viewpoint of a human eye looking through a large observatory telescope. &#8221; Guillaume Lord, Set Designer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[818],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3C0LX-MF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3017"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3017"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3913,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3017\/revisions\/3913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}