by Tracy Dillon
Cirque du Soleil shows are synonymous with creative design, elegant acrobatics, and unrivaled performances that meld circus with theatrical storytelling. When it came to rethinking the front-of-house space—the bistro and retail shop area that Cirque’s show-goers pass through on their way into and out of the big tent—Cirque chose Miller Zell, based in Atlanta, to develop the new concept, expanding the performance experience and creating a marketplace more in synch with the brand.
The challenge, however, was devising a system for a traveling show that could be assembled and disassembled repeatedly over many months of cross-continental travel. In addition, the concept had to be flexible enough to adapt easily to changing show concepts.
As Keith Curtis, vice president and director of design for Miller Zell, notes, “The design had to be up to par to Cirque’s level, so we spent six to eight weeks researching, traveling, and learning their brand before we started to design.”
The Miller Zell team visited Cirque’s headquarters, training facility, and saw how signage, graphics, costumes, and lighting design are handled. “Our whole team had the complete behind-the-scenes tour from the rising of the tent to deconstruction before moving to the next city,” Curtis says.
As they learned, working within a tent environment for a traveling show posed challenges not usually faced in engineering and building for retail environments. For a start, the entire retail area would be set up over the space of one day by a hired crew that changed from location to location. Tools tend to be lost over time, so assembly needed to be simple enough that it could be managed, without tools, even in the relatively low-light situation of a tent interior. Miller Zell’s engineers accomplished this by creating a system that assembled primarily using slip-type hardware and folded brackets.
“Every aspect of the project was different from what you’d expect from a normal retail installation,” says Danny Corkran, design development manager for the project.
Broken down, fixtures had to fit in standard road cases, in trucks (for travel within countries), and in containers for overseas transportation. No piece could be wider than 40 inches. says Miller Zell specified heavy-gauge steel, heavy-duty casters, and clearcoat finishes for many fixtures to withstand the abuse of travel and hard use. Using heavy-duty laminates meant that nicks and bangs wouldn’t be as noticeable.
Design fixtures for changing moods
In addition, the team wanted an environment that could change even over the course of an evening “We wanted it to have a living, breathing face, so that it could look one way when spectators entered the show, look and feel different at intermission, and different again at the close of the evening, when many visitors would be purchasing souvenirs,” Curtis notes. Dramatic LED lighting, much of it integrated into the fixtures, helps change the mood as desired, while working within the limited power available to the front of the house.
Much of the design was translated into laser-cut aluminum and steel, including the laser-cut palm tree fixtures, which were designed to work with a variety of fixture accessories, including baskets, brackets, hooks, and shelves. Because Cirque wanted to be able to position items differently and vary the look of the tree, the fixtures were built to use solid poles and steel clamp-on collars, like those used for motor shafts and drives, Corkran says. LED wands clip on to the the palms’ “branches” to provide light. Round circus-style millwork cabinets and cashwraps also contribute to the mood of the space.
The fixtures themselves, once assembled, sit on the temporary paved surface supplied for Cirque’s tents, so Miller Zell built more leveling ability into them than in typical fixtures. Fixture bases were fabricated from heavy-duty steel in order to sit safely and securely on the ground, since they could not be fastened in any way to the paved surface. The palm tree fixture base, for example, is cut from ½-inch-thick steel plate and weighs in the neighborhood of 1,500 pounds. The main upright poles are heavy-gauge aluminum in order to reduce weight.
Miller Zell fabricated about half of the pieces for the prototype; the rest were built by Cirque’s vendors in Montreal. Miller Zell staff also supervised the first installation, for the world premiere opening of Cirque’s “OVO” show in Montreal.
OVO, and the new retail concept, is currently traveling throughout North America. Miller Zell is adapting the concept for various permanent Cirque installations throughout the U.S.
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