The St James Theatre's new fly tower will be put through its paces this weekend with the opening of the Gore Operatic Society's show Jesus Christ Superstar.
Theatre engineer Rob Peters, of Christchurch, was in Gore earlier this week to provide some extra training for operators of the new equipment, John Haines and Paul McPhail, so they would be confident about operating all facets of the equipment.
Mr Peters, who runs his own company, installed the new fly tower.
This would be the first major show that used the new equipment, he said.
One of the features of the show would be the moving of an 800kg hanging bridge, which was built by Braziers Scaffolding, of Invercargill.
"This is the first really big show on their own,'' Mr Peters said.
"I'm here just to give them a bit of confidence I guess, it's a delight to be able to come down and work with these guys,'' he said.
When the fly tower was installed Mr Peters carried out training with those society members that were going to be operating the equipment as part of the handover procedure.
However, Mr Peters believed it was beneficial to carry out some extra training with those involved in an actual show.
"It gives more experience and confidence,'' he said.
Once those who operated the fly tower gained more experience, they would begin to implement more elaborate changes for shows, he said.
He praised the operatic society and the theatre, saying he thoroughly enjoyed working in Gore and it was an unusual project in some respects as he usually worked in theatres that were in construction phases.
He praised the people involved in the upgrade and said there was a great sense of community in Gore.
"The community was obviously right behind it [the project] from the beginning,'' he said.
What had been achieved in the upgrade, with the amount of money the society had to spend, was commendable as the end result was one of value and quality, he said.
Theatregoers will notice a big change from the staging of shows in the past as the new equipment makes set changes very quick and quiet.
