The St. Louis Muny Theatre is the country’s oldest and largest outdoor musical theater, and recently celebrated its 100th Anniversary. As part of this celebration, a large capital campaign was held to raise funds for a complete theatre renovation.
The theatre required complete upgrades to their sound, lighting and performer flying capabilities. To meet these needs, TOMCAT was enlisted by TAIT (http://www.taittowers.com); a World Market Leader providing Event / Production Solutions hired by the Muny to oversee the entirety of production upgrades for their theatre.
The task was to provide two truss systems, which included a downstage clear span truss structure and an upstage ground supported structure.
The downstage system spans the entire cross stage length at an impressive approximate distance of 112’! Supporting the spans are TOMCAT custom steel end support towers that are mounted to the theatre’s rooftops.
The upstage system is comprised of (2) 42’ towers, constructed from TOMCAT custom designed 30” x 28” spigoted truss, which support an approximate cross stage system span of 82’.
Both downstage and upstage spans utilize TOMCAT’s custom 40” x 30” extra heavy duty spigoted truss profile with diagonals on all faces, which offer the Muny Theatre a flexible system that can be outfitted for specialized lighting, sound and performer flying needs.
At the end of the renovation, Muny’s massive main stage is now equipped with a revolving turntable, 3 orchestra lifts, 2 performer lifts and a tracking system used to move scenery. Additionally, 2 lighting gantries and 4 refurbished scenic booms (originally built in 1959) are used to hang scenery and retract 40 ft. on and off stage.
TOMCAT was honored to be a part of this project that will allow the Muny to continue their effort to provide world-class musical theatre to the people of St. Louis.
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