Beauty and the Beast transformations

[laser]

I'm trying to come up with ideas for the two transformations in Beauty and the Beast, beggar woman to enchantress and Beast to Prince. My venue is a high school stage with no access below the floor for a trap or fog delivery hoses. We have a fly system, a Lemaitre G150 fog machine, a Lemaitre pea souper(dry ice) unit. We have a decent lighting inventory including strobes. Pyro technics are allowed under permit with a fire marshall on duty. I have read some of the old postings but I was hoping for some new ideas. I did get quotes from Flying by Foy and ZFX but the $5000. + price is out of our budget range. So if any of you could teach David Copperfield or Disney a few new tricks, please let me know how I could pull this off.

Thank you!
Laser

[Jak119]

When I did Beauty and the Beast with my community theater we had a couple of strobes firing into fog with some Christmas lights with each strand on a dimmer and the cues made them pulse. Additionally there were a few Martin Roboscans that were rapid firing green also into the fog.

[theatretechguy]

Originally Posted by laser

I'm trying to come up with ideas for the two transformations in Beauty and the Beast, beggar woman to enchantress and Beast to Prince. My venue is a high school stage with no access below the floor for a trap or fog delivery hoses. We have a fly system, a Lemaitre G150 fog machine, a Lemaitre pea souper(dry ice) unit. We have a decent lighting inventory including strobes. Pyro technics are allowed under permit with a fire marshall on duty. I have read some of the old postings but I was hoping for some new ideas. I did get quotes from Flying by Foy and ZFX but the $5000. + price is out of our budget range. So if any of you could teach David Copperfield or Disney a few new tricks, please let me know how I could pull this off.

Thank you!
Laser

Using doubles makes life easier too. The Real Prince starts off during the prologue, and is switched with a double showing the "transformed beast". (The actor then has the next 25 minutes or so to actually get into costume and makeup). The begger woman and enchantress are separate characters, too and its usually just a question of how to switch them out quickly (under cover of lights and fog). During the mob attack, the beasts lines are said off-stage on mic, and during the final transformation the double-beast fights with Gaston and is switched for the "Prince" during the transformation (whatever you decide to do).

In order for the transformations to work, the lighting designer, set designer, sound designer, costume designer and director all need to be on the same page.

[zuixro]

Originally Posted by theatretechguy

Using doubles makes life easier too. The Real Prince starts off during the prologue, and is switched with a double showing the "transformed beast". (The actor then has the next 25 minutes or so to actually get into costume and makeup). The begger woman and enchantress are separate characters, too and its usually just a question of how to switch them out quickly (under cover of lights and fog). During the mob attack, the beasts lines are said off-stage on mic, and during the final transformation the double-beast fights with Gaston and is switched for the "Prince" during the transformation (whatever you decide to do).

In order for the transformations to work, the lighting designer, set designer, sound designer, costume designer and director all need to be on the same page.

I know a set of identical twins that were the Beast and another character (I can't remember who). They were both in Beast makeup and switched out just before the transformation scene. Then the real Beast went and got into prince makeup, and switched back during the transformation scene. I don't remember the exact logistics of it, but it worked something like that.

[ReiRei]

I agree that doubles work very well when it comes to the beast transformation. Strobe and fog takes the attention off of the switch as well. We had our strobe light speed up when they switched and then slowed it down. With the fog it looks amazing.

You can just have an actor come on stage all hunched over and when the beast is all like, "no, I don't want your rose, and i don't want you in my house!" just have the actor throw a cloak off herself and be like, BAM! I'M A BEAUTIFUL ENCHANTRESS!!!

The beast transformation makes everyone forget about the enchantress transformation anyways...

[brozeph20]

When we put on Beauty and the Beast this fall, we purchased two "American DJ LED Pearly WH's" and put them off to the side of the place where the beast transfromed at the end. We turned off all the other lights and put these on him w/o fog originally - the beast looks like he has fireflies underneath his cloak - really good effect.
We then added a lot of fog and the LED pearls sent beams in front of the beast to cover him up. Then the double switched with the beast - turning into the prince. Our beast was stading and the prince put his arm into the same cloak and they both switched positions seemlessly. Belle, who was standing about 5 feet away, couldn't tell when they switched because it looked so convincing.