Mamma Mia!

The growth of the Middle East major events production industry, particularly in the GCC, has been astounding in recent years. The opening and closing ceremonies of the recent 15th Asian Games in Doha presented a perfect illustration of local ingenuity combining with international experience to stage massive and technically complex presentations previously unseen in the region.

However, when it comes to supporting major touring stage productions, the immediate lack of fully-equipped, large-scale venues and experienced labour conspires to create challenges for event organisers and production managers.

These challenges are exarcebated when the show in question typically runs to short and strict production deadlines in venues that struggle to meet basic technical requirements.

Welcome to the world of Matt Towell. As production manager for the international version of Mamma Mia for the past three years, Towell has developed an intimate working knowledge of the complex and precise technical requirements needed to stage the show and has done so in countries ranging from South Africa to Germany. Towell's role sees him involved in every aspect of the production, from technical management - including stage set-up and tear-down - to staffing and third-party contractor liaison in each country the production visits.

"My role entails bringing the various components together to ensure a successful show," says Towell.

"I manage all areas of staffing, from production electricians, riggers and staging contractors, to lighting and sound technicians."

As Towell explains, the actual staging of Mamma Mia at any given venue represents the culmination of months of planning and consideration in conjunction with local partners. "[UK-based licensing partner] NGM has been approached by hundreds of promoters keen to stage Mamma Mia, but it's quite an expensive production, so the financial commitment is the foremost consideration," he explains. "The other primary concern is whether a suitable venue can be secured."

Mamma Mia's recent Middle East run, which took in Doha and Dubai, posed some significant challenges to Towell and his team.

"The first issue we had to consider was the actual physical size of the venues, which were much smaller than those we were used to performing in. The show generally plays major arenas with huge ceilings and large access areas that allow us to bring trailers into the building," Towell explains.

"There are various versions of the production we can stage, depending on the size of a venue and its infrastructure. But generally speaking, it's ideal if a venue has around 3,000 seats and is capable of accommodating around 22 tonnes of background sets."

The Doha venue in particular presented some major technical challenges, Towell says.

"The venue in Doha was actually an indoor tennis centre in the grounds of the Ritz-Carlton hotel," he explains. "We had to bring in most of the technical infrastructure -including generators - and we had to build dressing rooms and cover the floor with a protective coating. We were even forced to remove windows, build ramps and bring in cranes to load equipment in, because the court was five metres below ground-level.

"We were forced to erect additional drapes to improve the acoustics, in addition to blacking out the court windows. Unfortunately, the finishing of the drapes and some of the carpeting left a bit to be desired, but we made do.

"The Madinat Arena in Dubai presented a less challenging proposition. While we had access to good technical support in Dubai, a huge amount of preparation goes into a tour like this and we never take anything for granted. With no disrespect to the local promoters, we work to ensure we've got all the bases covered before we set off."

Unforeseen circumstances still conspired to create problems for the crew, as Towell explains.

"In Doha, we were loading out the equipment and there was a black-out. As it happened, the lights were on a timer and we couldn't get them back on. The local workers were unperturbed. They put their head torches on and carried on working. It was quite a bizarre sight."

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