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Cricket World Cup
| Date: |
02 February 2003 12:00 |
| Producer: |
Kate Barry
Kate Barry
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| Show: | Carte Blanche |
[file footage]
The Opening Ceremony of the previous Cricket World Cup at Lords Cricket Ground - and like the weather that day, a bit of a damp squib.
Traditionally there's nothing flashy about cricket. In the past, World Cup opening ceremonies have been staid affairs with just the right amount of decorum one would expect from the game. But that's all about to change.
Next Saturday night, Newlands, Cape Town, will host the biggest stadium theatre event Africa has ever seen. It promises to rival the Sydney Olympics for creative brilliance and spectacular entertainment.
It all started with a dream.
Penny Jones: 'Stadium theatre around the world is an incredible opportunity to showcase your country. It's a two-hour world-feed. We're going to be going out to more than two billion viewers around the world. We are going to be selling South Africa and we're selling the spirit and the passion and the energy of our people.'
Penny Jones is the Executive Producer of the Opening Ceremony, and it's her concept we'll be seeing on the night.
Penny: 'People will know around the world when they look at those pictures - it's a uni-lingual medium. When they look at those pictures and they listen to the music, they don't have to understand our language, they will understand what makes South Africa a special place.'
Viewers will be taken on a whistle-stop tour of our country, starting with an African safari experience. We'll join a group of tourists who are being escorted by tour guide Marc Lottering.
Marc Lottering: 'I'm a good person to show to the internationals because I'm not too black and I'm not too white and that's always a safe bet - full sentences, eloquent ... so it always helps. I'm a sure win and I come in under budget always.'
A hundred zebras, 60 meerkats, 40 giraffes and, of course, the Big Five, are just some of the animals we'll be seeing. These creatures are the creations of Artistic Director, Keith Anderson. Keith was a trapeze artist in an American three-ring circus. When he broke some bones he started designing and making props. He went on to design seven Disney Ice shows and was a consultant on the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
Keith Anderson: 'They are larger than life. I mean, I've just drawn them freehand and I wanted to go larger than life. When you've got a huge space like the cricket field, it's hard to fill it and these fill it extremely well. And the fact that the bottom's clad in cloth ... when you've got a hundred of these moving, it looks like they're kicking up the dust.'
There are 12 000 costumes in the show, all made by sewing groups in the townships of Cape Town. In fact, 70% of the costume budget was pumped into the community, but first Assistant Producer, Mathews Makome, had to convince them to participate.
Mathews Makome: 'So I had to assure communities that we are not here to take your money. Actually we are here to leave money in the townships and get your guys involved. So from one meeting to the other - poor attendance, better attendance, good attendance, excellent attendance - that's how it was building all the time.'
He also managed to convince the community to volunteer as performers.
Marc: 'People perhaps didn't understand the term volunteers. Everyone thought they were going to be paid - no (laughing) ...'
Penny: 'You are not watching professional performers here. These are just ordinary people and that's one of the legacies of stadium theatre. You take ordinary people and you make them extraordinary for a moment in time.'
There are almost 5 000 volunteers who've been rehearsing for six months.
Volunteer: 'The experience of doing the show - it's very exciting.'
Volunteer: 'The chance of a lifetime - history in the making.'
Volunteer: 'Great! I have new friends now.'
Volunteer: 'Ja, ons is van die Kaap!'
But how do you get thousands of amateurs to perform like professionals and how do you move them around the field without bumping into each other? The solution is to bring in the experts.
Steven Boyd is a charting choreographer who's worked on six Olympic Games, the Commonwealth Games and several Superbowls. His job is to take the director's vision for a scene and plot every movement of every performer on paper.
Steven Boyd : 'You can't just tell 300 people, 'OK, come in and wind around the path,' you have to tell them, 'Go here, point A, point B, point C, stop, point D, E,' you know, so it just goes on. You have to have a game plan.'
He also charts a stacking system for the cast to line up in the tunnel before they go onto the field. The whole operation requires split-second timing as thousands of cast members have to be moved from the holding area in Newlands rugby stadium over to Newlands cricket stadium.
And the man who directs the action on the field is Doug Jack.
Doug Jack: 'I'm a problem solver - we don't call them problems, we call them issues. We do improvements. I help you take your vision and just open up the aperture ... open as wide as we can.'
[rehearsal footage]
Doug: 'Do we have the Big Five ready? The Elephants ready? There you are, sir. How are you today?'
Doug directed choreography for the past four Olympics and will also be in charge at Athens. Last year he won an Emmy Award for the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. Now he is working his magic here in Cape Town, sometimes with the help of a translator.
[rehearsal footage]
Doug: 'Green team, are you ready?
Translator: 'Green team ... sithule?'
But South African directors are also involved. Richard Loring directs the township scene with the cast of African Footprint.
Richard Loring: 'We do have some other artists in it, like Rebecca Malope, Judith Sephuma, Arthur, Yvonne Chaka-Chaka. We set off with the arrival in the township with the noise of the taxis, the hooters, the noise of people ... and all of a sudden we have the girl saying, 'Life in the fast-lane,' and we do the fast-lane jive.'
The fast-lane jive? In the middle of a cricket pitch? As any cricket fan knows, the cricket pitch is hallowed ground. Here at Newlands, if you put a foot on it without permission, it's an automatic R40 000 fine. The pitch is sacrosanct. So how then were they persuaded to allow nearly 5 000 performers onto it the night before the opening match?
Trevor Paul is the Technical Director who solved the problem. He designed a circular stage that encompasses and protects the sensitive area. The whole thing weighs 32 tons and each segment sits on a glass fibre ski. The segments have to be removed every night and are stored on cantilever arms around the circumference of the stadium. Trevor also solved the problem of protecting the outfield.
Trevor Paul: 'What we've done here is we've put together what we call an agricultural cloth, which allows UV-light through it so it doesn't kill it and it allows the grass to breathe. What we found when we did the test at Youngsfield was that it actually kept the grass beautiful and green. So I believe it will enhance the field and it is vital to the show. All the choreography and the markings and the charting and so on has to be done on this cloth.'
The cloth is like a giant puzzle that must be laid out in the same order for every rehearsal, and rehearsals are only allowed in the evening, after photosynthesis time. It's a huge gamble for groundsman, Christo Erasmus.
Christo Erasmus: 'It's in the interest of our country. I have to do it and I have to make it work.'
The event will use 2 000 lights, 1 500 km of power cables, 15 000 amps of power, 12 generators, 40 000 watts of sound power and over 60 tons of structures.
The budget for the opening ceremony is R30-million. That may sound like a lot of money, but when you compare it to the Sydney Olympics, which cost R400-million, it's pretty tight. So how are they going to create the magic?
On the night of the show, the stadium will be dark and the lighting will create a completely different atmosphere. Emmy Award-winning lighting designer Marilyn Lowey has a key role to play.
Marilyn Lowey: 'For me a cricket stadium - I just took it as a stadium. So it was larger to me. When I walked in, I felt like I was standing in the La Scala of stadiums. Because the scale is so friendly to me.
And with 22 cameras TV-producer Mark West will try and make viewers feel like they're right there.
Mark West: 'Television viewers worldwide flick channels as they want to. So the secret is to keep them encapsulated in the event. They must not want to go to the fridge and get a beer. They must want to stay there. Obviously that's my job and it's difficult to achieve, but we'll give it our best shot.'
And as the tour guide, Marc Lottering will have to be on his funniest behaviour.
Les Aupiais: 'Over a billion people are going to watch this. Do you ever think of that - that figure?'
Marc: 'This morning I was holding my dog thinking of it and then I dropped my dog. Often when I think of it, I think it is an amazing opportunity. I thank God for it because it comes along once in a lifetime, I think.'
Everyone involved in this massive undertaking is aware of how much is riding on this show. It could lead to South Africa hosting the Soccer World Cup or even the Olympics.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:While every attempt has been made to ensure this transcript or summary is accurate, Carte Blanche or its agents cannot be held liable for any claims arising out of inaccuracies caused by human error or electronic fault. This transcript was typed from a transcription recording unit and not from an original script, so due to the possibility of mishearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, errors cannot be ruled out.
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