Although most of the personnel in the scenic construction department are specialists in a particular field – such as carpentry or metalwork – they need to have a wide range of skills which reach beyond their core discipline. This is often due to the wide range of materials which the scenic...

Many of the complex sets at the National either have a steel skeleton, or have steelwork visible on display. Steel is a very strong and safe material with which one can build items like bridges or walkways, but it's always vital to keep the weight of the structure down as much as possible.

Some of the sets built in the National’s workshops are very large, sometimes up to 10 metres tall and 15 metres across. Keeping the pieces of set flowing along the production line from the workshop into the paintframe requires skilful time management.