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All the stage is a whirrled Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Workers at the Ginger Rogers Craterian Theatre were at work this week installing a stage lift system. Called Spiralift, the $120,000 system makes it possible to configure the space as an extended stage reaching forward, for additional seating, or as an orchestra pit. The system is the first of its kind in Oregon. Craterian addition will enhance shows by giving performances an extra lift By Bill Varble John Day had never seen anything like the stage lift he�s installing at the Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater in Medford. "It�s pretty darn slick," he says. Day works for Access Conversions, the Klamath Falls elevator contractor that�s installing the $120,000 lift that will raise and lower the front of the stage at the touch of a switch. The gizmo is the first of its kind in Oregon, so officials decided it should be classified as an elevator for purposes of building permits and codes. The lift had been on the Craterian�s wish list since it opened in March of 1997. It�s a centerpiece of the improvements that were the object of what Craterian Executive Director Stephen McCandless called the Crate�s "Finish the Facility" fund-raising campaign. The campaign has quietly raised about a half-million dollars over the past three years, much of it from big donors like the M.J. Murdock Trust, the Ben B. Cheney Foundation and the Carpenter Foundation. The latest items on the list were the lift, an $80,000 acoustic shell and $50,000 worth of sound equipment. The Craterian bought the sound equipment from Oregon State Lighting and Sound, of Medford. The speakers, mixing consoles, amplifiers and other devices are the same ones the theater had been renting for many of its concerts. The acoustic shell comprises three rows of rose-colored panels that lower into position over the stage. They�ll be used for acoustic shows to enable musicians to better hear each other and to project sound.. "It�s a key in our getting the Rogue Valley Symphony as a regular here," McCandless says Thursday. When the new Crate debuted three years ago, she�d been designed to accommodate an automated platform at the front of the stage, but the budget wouldn�t stand for that at the time. So the Craterian Performances Company made do with manually raising and lowering a platform supported by an elaborate system of scaffolding. Each time the stage was raised or lowered it took five crew members about five hours, often at midnight, on overtime. The scaffolding was stored in a room called "the musicians� room," which became in effect a scaffolding room. The result was that the stage was seldom moved. "This one takes about two minutes," McCandless says. He expects it to have a big impact on shows by such groups as the Rogue Valley Chorale, the Rogue Valley Symphony, the Rogue Opera and The State Ballet of Oregon. Called Spiralift, the system makes it possible to configure the space as an extended stage reaching forward, for additional seating, or as an orchestra pit. The system uses no hydraulics and no mechanical scissors. It forms a stainless steel column by transferring power through gears to two sets of steel bands which lock together, in effect telescoping to the desired height. The columns � unlike hydraulic ones � collapse into themselves. They fit into the existing pit, with no excavating and no caissons. The things are made by Gala Theatrical Equipment, a division Paco Corp., a Canadian firm. Jean-Pierre Dionne, of Montreal, one of four technicians that help install the things around the world, says it�s the first in Oregon. The last one he installed was in Singapore; the next is in Washington, D.C. "It goes up and down, but you can�t tell what�s doing it," he says. Count Day among those who are impressed. "It�s super-smooth," he says. "The first time he ran it, there was no jump whatever." Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA