Staging of Nureyev Ballet Is a Monstrous-Size Task

King Kong lies disassembled in four giant pieces. Directly behind him hang three huge blowups of a famous Betty Grable pinup pose.

A few feet away, a team of technicians is assembling a 3-story clock that will tick off the ominous hour of midnight and send Cinderella scurrying in alarm out of the arms of her handsome prince.

No, this was not a backstage lot at RKO or Universal Studios.

It was backstage at Segerstrom Hall, where a joint Gallic-American team was busy last week assembling the elaborate sets for Rudolf Nureyev’s 1930s Hollywood version of “Cinderella,” which opened Tuesday and runs through Sunday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

“These are only a few of the pieces,” said Michelle Kohl, technical director of the Paris Opera Ballet on tour, speaking through a translator.

“There are about a thousand in all. It took eight 40-foot-long containers to transport the set for ‘Cinderella.’

“It was not designed to travel, scalewise and weightwise. It’s a major accomplishment to present a show like that abroad. Not every theater has the capacity of lifting the sum of the weights. Here we can.”

King Kong stands about 25 feet high and weighs between 700 and 800 pounds. The figure is made of polyester and coconut fiber built on an iron frame.

The clock tower is about 32 feet high.

“It is a stationary piece, but the mechanism is motorized,” Kohl said. “It has a pendulum and wheels that turn.”

The Betty Grable pinups range from about 25 to 31 feet tall. The differences in size are to create the illusion of perspective. They are made of fiberglass and papier-mache on chicken wire.

“The most difficult set change is the first,” Kohl said. “We have to fly up a window frame between the prologue and the first act. The frames are very heavy. They are multiple pieces weighing about 3,000 pounds.”

Kohl is being assisted in his efforts by Dale Ward, 36, a production supervisor provided by the Metropolitan Opera. (After opening in Orange County, “Cinderella” will travel to the Met in New York, then Wolf Trap in Washington). Paris Opera’s Happy Massee, 29, is acting as translator and technical interpreter.

There is also a local crew of more than 70 carpenters, electricians and other technical people, plus a traveling American crew of about nine and a traveling French crew of about 15.

“It takes all these people to make it happen,” Ward said.

“Communication is a problem,” said Massee. “Michael, fortunately, speaks English a little.” Kohl returned the compliment: “Happy is a good interpreter between the metric and the American systems (of weights and measurement).”

The team was faced with major problems in reassembling the sets because designer Petrika Ionesco had created them for a raked, or slightly tilted, stage.

“But every theater in the U.S. is flat,” Kohl said. “The stage of the Paris Opera has a 5% rake, which means that in order for the scenery to hang straight here, we have to add 2 inches at the bottom for every 3 feet of stage. That could be a lot of work here. Fortunately, it was done in Paris.”

The Parisians also ran into trouble with the English system of measurement.

“Everything is bolted together, but all the nuts and bolts are in metric,” Kohl said. “Your tools are designed for inches. But fortunately, we found the right tools.”

The dancers will have their own problems regarding measurement, according to Kohl.

“The (Segerstrom Hall) stage is the same width as the stage in Paris, but it is shallower by about 15 feet,” Kohl said. “The dancers, for rehearsals in Paris, have laid down tape for the size of this stage. But they always go beyond it.”

The technical team had to work nimbly in setting up since the company came in on the heels of last week’s performances by the National Ballet of Canada. In fact, Kohl and company were assembling parts of the “Cinderella” set backstage while the set for the Canadians’ “Alice” was still sitting in the wings.

“It’s been very tight timewise and we’ve been very cramped,” Kohl said. “But it is a wonderful theater that has been able to handle the two companies. We’re so accustomed to bad management in the small theaters in the Parisian suburbs. Here we’ve been pleasantly surprised. . . .

“There is also a good crew. They’re hard working and silent, not like the French.”

Ward added: “There are good loading facilities to get the scenery in, which is not necessarily common. . . . In Paris, sometimes you have to take scenery out in the street in order to get it onto the stage.”

“Of course, we always could use more time,” Kohl laughed. “We never seem to have enough. In opera, the orchestra can vamp until we are ready. But not in ballet.”