Recent content by jungle16jim

We did much the same thing, although our boards had a 1/2 inch hole drilled through them and were held on by a screw head (less noise than velcro). The audience always asked me how we did it--simplest trick in the book.

I'm trying to build the fire box for Pippin. If you don't know the show, a dummy gets put in a box with a glass front and incinerated. In the context of the show, it can't look hokey at all--our hero is next in. In the venue, I can't use fire at all, so my mind went to the smoke alternative...

I did a production of The Wiz that had some of the same obstacles. For the balloon, I designed something that looked more like a souped up phone booth attached to a balloon. The idea was that this was a balloon with a flying room. It rested on a platform about 4 ft off the ground with...

I heard of a clever fix for Aladdin a while back. They had a carpet with a hole in the center that the actor stepped through. The rug was stiff and attached to his waist. It was outfitted with fake legs in front so that it looked like he was sitting on it. With all the fog onstage (for...

Gotta agree with Jmabray about show selection, but here are some other ideas. I've designed the show twice for theaters that couldn't support a full second story. Instead, both times I put the 3 upper doors over the window seat and they were about 6 ft off the ground. I cut the upper doors...

For Music Man several years ago, I had the cast collect cardboard tubes--mostly from paper towel holders and I got a fabric store to donate some old fabric spools. I cut them in half (or thirds for the larger ones), painted and named them. The rounded edges gave it a very romantic look. I...

I'm gearing up for The Grapes of Wrath and have heard that the Steppenwolf production opened the curtain at the top of the show to red lights and a fog covering the floor. When fans were put on it, the almost invisible fog picked up and looked like dust blowing in the wind. I'm a little...

Also, remember that you'll need to backlight the water. The scene is at night and we found that the audience could hear the rain, feel the rain, and see the effect of the rain, but could not see the rain until it was lit from behind or the side. Strange but true.