How have you "melted the witch"?

[Rockey]

Another Oz question... for those of you who have done the Wizard of Oz... how have you melted the witch at the end?
I know that there are a lot of options with smoke, trap doors, etc. But I'm wondering specifically what other people have used and if anyone had any ingenious ideas that looked spectacular.
Thanks in advance!

[WestlakeTech]

Trap door and fog machine, just like you said. I'd advise drilling some holes in front of the trapdoor though, so the smoke can rise before the door is opened. Most of the audience will figure out it's a trapdoor, but they shouldn't see it, and that was our biggest issue two years ago. (Guys and Dolls this year will be so much easier. ;-)

[lieperjp]

Since neither of the two stages I have done Oz on had a built in trapdoor, we built platforms. At my high school they built one with a fairly large sized hole in it, painted it black, and covered the hole with a black cloth. Then when the witch melted, she would step into the hole covered by black cloth, and her cloak/costume would disguise the hole as she went down.

Here at my college we built a sliding trap door into the set for the witches castle, when the time came a member of the stage crew would slide the trapdoor out from underneath and she would go under.

In both cases the costume was large enough to cover the hole in the stage. However, here we used a bit of the canned fog. At my high school we did not use any fog that I can remember.

[theatretechguy]

For our production the entire "witches lair" was a large square rolling platform with stairs on the side going up. The "trap" was always open and was actually a "slide". Because of the angle, the audience never saw the trap and at the right moment, smoke was brought in and the witch knelt down and basically slid down the slide, out of sight. The unit is rolled off at the end of the scene, witch still inside.

[kiwitechgirl]

We had a truck which was the witch's throne room, with her throne at the centre of it. The seat of the throne was built with hinges at the front and he;d up by bolts at the back; when Dorothy threw the water at her, she fell back onto the seat, which was unbolted at the back by two crew who were behind the truck, and it then tilted down. The witch slid butt first down the seat, which was by then at about a 45 degree angle, and disappeared behind the truck, leaving her hat behind. This was, of course, helped with a lot of smoke and strobing! This is the only picture I have of the truck, it's not particularly helpful but is better than nothing!

[gafftaper]

I built a platform about 3' tall. With a 2'x2' trapdoor in the middle. The trap door opened down and toward the front of the stage. On the left and right side of the hole under the stage I built ladders.

At the start of the scene the witch straddled the hole. A crowd of soldiers was gathered around the witch at the moment the water (large blue and green glitter) was thrown. Two technicians opened the trap and shot some smoke out. The witch proceeded to climb down the ladders, one foot on each side, smoke coming up around her. Under the stage, a technician was guiding each foot step so she could do this smoothly and confidently. She had a large black cape made just for this scene that came off easily and spread around the hole. As she went down the ladders, she took off the hat and the soldiers gathered around made sure that as the door was closed the trap was covered with the cape and hat. It took a little practice to get it right but it looked really good in the end.

[cdub260]

Originally Posted by kiwitechgirl

We had a truck...

Am I not recognizing this because it's one of those south of the equator terms or is it because I haven't built a set in nearly a decade?

Is it what I think of as a wagon?

[gafftaper]

Yeah CB... another one of those regional dialect things. I think it's a wagon.

[gafftaper]

Hughesie translated:
A "truck" is Aussie for "wagon".
A "trolley" is Aussie for a "wagon" with a handle on one end for pushing and pulling.

[derekleffew]

Not just Aussie, but most non-US English-speaking countries.