He Wants a Tree On Stage...

[h20tgger]

True story, my high school is doing Shakespeare's A Mid-Summer Nights Dream, and the director has stated that he wants a tree built on stage that people need to climb in and out of...Have you ever done this? Suggestions?

[Footer]

I have done midsummers.... and I have built a tree people could climb on.... but not both together.

Here is my design for As You Like It. Its kind of the same type of thing with midsummers. I am in no way saying this is the end all be all, you should make your design your own. But.... it does not have to be an exact representation of a tree.



Now... if you want a literal tree.... it can be done. Its not easy to do... and if it has to be climbable its a different story all together....



So.... the question is... how literal do you want to go and how much cash do you have? The top one cost me about 100 dollars and used all my stock platforming... the bottom one was about 6k and featured fiber optics and pneumatic casters.

[jessamarie6]

A lot of this may come around to asking the right questions as a designer. He says he wants them to be able to climb the tree. Your questions should draw out more information. Does he want a romantic place for two lovers to cuddle, or does he want a place for puck to hide? Once you know exactly what he wants, you can either find a way to accomplish the same task with another set piece, or alter the tree to safely do what he needs it too.

I had a similar project recently and it ended up that the director wanted one actor to climb the tree and hide there to overhear other conversations. I ended up building a tree trunk, hanging a bunch of branches in the air to (disguise that the trunk disappeared into nothing), and building a small ladder in the back side of the tree so that the actor can climb the ladder and peek around the trunk. This way the director could get the moment he needed without me needing to use my whole budget building a tree with a branch that could support the weight of an actor.

[BrianWolfe]

I have done this several times, Camelot, On Borrowed Time and for a couple of otheres whose name I cannot remember. We started with a wood armature that had a small platform and ladder built into the back. The front of the tree was framed in with wood cores covered with forming cloth or chicken wire. The high budget jobs were covered with spray foam, carved and fiberglassed or rim sprayed. The cheaper ones were simply papier mached and painted. The hard part for me was keeping the platform small enough so the tree didn't become huge.

[Irish]

What you really need is more information. What kind of tree is he talking about and how many 'paths' up the tree need to support weight? Only build the structure you need to allow people to get where they need to be safe and sound. Once you have that info you can try to figure out the look of the thing. A redwood looks a lot different from a weeping willow.