For 200 million years the Dinosaurs
ruled the earth
Now they’re back to roam the arenas of North America
in an extraordinary new theatrical production
WALKING WITH DINOSAURS
The Live Experience
Based on the award-winning BBC Television
Series
WALKING WITH
DINOSAURS – The Live Experience
Comes to Verizon Center for Six performances only from
Wednesday, September 19 through Saturday, September 22
Tickets go on sale Saturday, July 21 at 10:00 a.m.
 Dinosaurs
return to the earth in WALKING WITH DINOSAURS – The
Live Experience, based on the award-winning BBC Television
Series. After playing for ten sold-out weeks in five cities in Australia,
where it was seen by an audience of over 300,000, WALKING
WITH DINOSAURS – The Live Experience now comes to
North America for a two-year arena tour and will perform six shows
at Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. Tickets for the Verizon Center
shows from September 19 through September 22 go on sale Saturday,
July 21 at 10:00 a.m.
WALKING WITH DINOSAURS – The Live Experience
is brought to North America by Immersion Edutainment, headed by
Bruce Mactaggart. Mactaggart said, “The BBC Series was a brilliant
blend of special effects, escapism, excitement and information.
Our show has that -- and it’s live. In this show, fifteen
roaring, snarling ‘live’ dinosaurs mesmerize the audience
– and are as awe-inspiring as when they first walked on earth.
This is a show that could only fit in arenas – as the creatures
are so absolutely immense in size. It is the closest you’ll
ever get to experiencing what it was like when they walked and ruled
the earth.”
After years of planning, WALKING WITH DINOSAURS
came to life at Sydney’s Acer Arena on January 10, 2007. The
show has already proved itself such a sensation that the North American
tour was fast-tracked, beginning a scant three months after completing
its engagements in Australia.
The creative team is lead by director Scott Faris, a Broadway veteran
who has worked side by side with Harold Prince, Trevor Nunn, Michael
Blakemore, Gene Saks, John Caird, Tommy Tune and Jerry Zaks.
The creatures are designed and built by Sonny Tilders. The set
design and projected image design is by Peter England. The lighting
is by John Rayment. The score is composed by James Brett.
Tim Haines, creator and producer of the original BBC series, which
was seen by a worldwide audience of 700 million, serves as Project
Consultant to the production. The series won six Emmy and three
BAFTA Awards.
Ten species are represented from the entire 200 million year reign
of the dinosaurs. The show includes the Tyrannosaurus Rex, the terror
of the ancient terrain, as well as the Plesiosaurus and Liliensternus
from the Triassic period, and the Stegosaurus and Allosaurus from
the Jurassic period and Torosaurus and Utahraptor from the Cretaceous
period. The largest of them, the Brachiosaurus, is 45 feet tall
and 75 feet long from nose to tail. It took a team of 50 –
including engineers, fabricators, skin makers, artists and painters,
and animatronic experts – a year to build the original production.
Variety said, “The dinosaurs are stunning, life-size and
faultlessly nimble. In act one, the beast’s parade into the
arena gnashing and cavorting as a safari-suited paleontologist describes
their attributes … in the second half, the action cranks up,
culminating in a spectacular clash as a T-Rex mom defends her baby
from predators. Sonny Tilders' triumphant creature design ensures
‘Walking With Dinosaurs’ is a truly spectacular spectacular.
It is everything a dino-phile could want.”
The 15 dinosaurs of the original Australian production were “hatched”
by Tilders, the head of creature design, in a Melbourne Docklands
workshop big enough to park a 747. The show took one year to build.
The team of 50 artists and technicians are now building a new set
of ‘stars’ to tour North America and later internationally.
In the United States, the show is so big that the only building
large enough near the Tacoma Dome to house rehearsals for the North
America tour was the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center!
In fact, the creatures are so large, that the show can only play
to two-thirds of the seating of American arenas. Audiences seated
in the lower seats are all but overwhelmed by the dinosaurs, while
those seated in higher seats view the entire spectacle and panorama
of the production.
Scott Faris directed Michael Crawford in EFX at the MGM Grand Hotel
in Las Vegas, which at its time was the biggest stage production
ever conceived, and was also on the production team that created
Siegfried & Roy at the Mirage Hotel. Faris directed
the London production of Chicago, as well as productions
of Les Miserables, City of Angels, Cats, Grease and the
current national tour of Sweet Charity starring Molly Ringwald.
Faris said, "We take the audience on a journey back in time
and show them how the dinosaurs might have actually looked in their
prime - huge, sometimes frightening, sometimes comical monsters
- that fought for survival every day of their lives. Our dinosaurs
move exactly like they are real -- with all the roars, snorts and
excitement that go with it. The realism is mind-blowing!"
The show depicts the dinosaurs’ evolution, complete with
the climatic and tectonic changes that took place, which led to
the demise of many species. With almost cinematic realism, WALKING
WITH DINOSAURS has scenes of the interactions between dinosaurs,
and the audience sees how carnivorous dinosaurs evolved to walk
on two legs, and how the herbivores fended off their more agile
predators.
The history of the world is played out with the splitting of the
earth’s continents, and the transition from the arid desert
of the Triassic period is given over to the lush green prairies
and forces of the later Jurassic period. Oceans form, volcanoes
erupt, a forest catches fire -- all leading to the massive comet,
which struck the earth, and forced the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Sonny Tilders, who designed and built the creatures has been, for
the past decade, one of the major creative forces of the high-tech
world of animatronic puppetry for film and television. He was one
of the lead animatronic engineers for Jim Henson’s Creature
workshop on the Farscape series, followed by work on Star Wars:
Episode III – Revenge of the Siths, Peter Pan, Ghostrider
and The Chronicles of Narnia.
Tilders said, “Many of the technologies we are using on WALKING
WITH DINOSAURS – The Live Experience are borrowed
from film. The computer software and hardware we have developed
is based on the systems used to control animatronic creatures in
feature films.”
“To make it appear that these creatures are flesh and blood
weighing six, eight or even 20 tons, we use a system called ‘muscle
bags,’ made from stretch mesh fabric and filled with polystyrene
balls, stretched across moving points on the body. These contract
and stretch in the same manner that muscle, fat, and skin does on
real creatures.”
“The puppeteers use ‘voodoo rigs’ to make many
of the dinosaurs move. They are miniature versions of the dinosaurs
with the same joints and range of movement as their life-sized counterparts.
The puppeteer manipulates the voodoo rig and these actions are interpreted
by computer and transmitted by radio waves to make the hydraulic
cylinders in the actual dinosaur replicate the action, with a driver
hidden below the animal, helping to maneuver it around the arena.”
Suited puppeteer specialists, who are inside the creatures, operate
five of the smaller dinosaurs.
To meet the technical and creative demands presented by WALKING
WITH DINOSAURS -- The Live Experience, Faris assembled
a talented team of artists and technicians that are the best in
their fields from around the world.
The score of WALKING WITH DINOSAURS – The Live Experience
is by James Brett, additional writer, orchestrator and conductor
of 20th Century Fox’s Alien vs. Predator and Miramax’s
Ella Enchanted. Brett helped create the groundbreaking
collaboration between Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony as
assistant Musical Director alongside Michael Kamen; the album sold
five million copies worldwide.
The sets and projections are by the internationally renowned designer
Peter England, a frequent collaborator at Opera Australia and the
Australian Ballet. He designed the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games Opening
Ceremony, was a co-designer of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games Closing
Ceremony, designed three City of Sydney New Year’s Eve Celebrations
and was a finalist in the international design competition for the
Pentagon Memorial in Washington DC.
Lighting Designer John Rayment lit the Opening and Closing Ceremonies
of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games; Hong Kong’s original A
Symphony of Light, a massive cityscape permanent lighting display
involving over 18 buildings; Singapore’s 2002 National
Day Parade stadium event; and Singapore’s Marina Bay
annual New Year’s Eve Countdown display. Rayment
also works frequently at Opera Australia and has lit 30 productions
for the Sydney Dance Company.
WALKING WITH DINOSAURS – The Live Experience
is brought to North America by Immersion Edutainment.
Tickets for WALKING WITH DINOSAURS – The Live Experience
at Verizon Center are $82.50, $67.50, $45.00 and $30.50 (plus applicable
service charges) and go on sale Saturday, July 21 at 10:00 a.m.
There will be a six ticket limit. Tickets will be available through
all Ticketmaster outlets including the Verizon Center box office,
online at www.ticketmaster.com or via Phonecharge at 202-397-SEAT,
703-573-SEAT or 410-547-SEAT. Group Sales are available for parties
of 10 or more by calling 202-661-5061. Accessible seating is available
for patrons with disabilities by calling 202-661-5065. Non-professional
cameras are allowed, without flash. Video cameras are prohibited.
Children 3 years and older are required to have a ticket. For more
information please visit www.verizoncenter.com
or www.dinosaurlive.com.
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