A Maplewood firm is responsible for keeping the wheels turning at the MUNY — at least the biggest wheel.
Jean and David Cowell, co-owners of Cowell Engineering, annually survey the almost century-old outdoor outdoor theater in Forest Park, and oversee the repair of anything that needs attention. Being outside, there’s always something.
This year they’re paying special attention to the giant turntable (built in the 1950s) on the stage. It’s made of wood framing on top of steel. Some of the steel, and welds, are corroded from being outdoors. The last time they oversaw a turntable renovation was in 1996, when they were starting their company.
“We have to figure out if there are steel pieces that need to be replaced, and how to replace them,” Jean said. “There’s a lot of shims on this thing, where two pieces don’t exactly meet — there’s a stack of steel between one thing and another. Those tend to corrode quite a bit.”
A big motor turns the turntable, which sits on casters, connected by a steel cable. “It’s just like Disney World, where the part you see is only part of the story,” Jean said.
The cable is inspected before every show. “It all appears very seamless to the audience. And they have to really know how to run the thing, because they have exact marks where they have to stop. Somebody is back there hitting the button making sure it stops where it’s supposed to stop,” David said.
“This is what engineers do on a daily basis,” Jean said. “It’s a lot like watching paint dry — boring to most people. What we work on is interesting. What we do is detail oriented; it’s tedious, technical.”
Also this year they’re working on renovating the light bridge support. “It’s a lot of interesting-looking angles, going every which way,” Jean said. “Those are outside too, and deteriorate.” David said he used to climb up on the bridge for the inspection. Now he uses binoculars.
