Recent content by TheatrePros

It the same situation I have made them from 18 gauge 1x1 steel and tacked a strip of plywood on the upstage side. This allowed me to staple the fabric on and create a unique shape with just the perimeter frame.

My guess is they used some sort of projection screen. How big of a screen do you need?

Instead of cutting it out of a whole sheet I would half flap it. Cut strips and then notch each strip halfway at the intersections. It is one of the strongest joints you can create as long as you give your glue time to set. This will also eliminate the eventual Wiggle you will get from the...

re: My Fair Lady props: Candle & GramophoneWe have pretty strict fire code and we were able to do the candle still. check with a local regional theatre, they should have a Victrolla or Gramaphone for you to borrow. You want a live flame vs faking it or cut that bit, god knows it is a long...

I am a HUGE fan of Jaxsan, easy to thin, easy to tint, easy to clean up. Put that on a foam roller and you have a nice texture that a six year old can do (literally my nephew textured an entire fake stone henge with the stuff). Get the trowel grade and then you can use water to thin it to what...

I second the packing blankets. I store all of my sets this way in semi trailers for the sets we rent and they are great on the other end when the client opens them up, sometimes years later.

Most versions of Dracula call for some cool effectsPicasso at the Lapine Agile calls for the entire set to disappear and a star drop to be there.If you are really feeling ambitious there's always Phantom of the Opera

I see you are near Chicago. Drury Lane OakBrook and the Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre both have real cars that have been used in recent years. I would check with American Theatre Company as well, they just finished up Grease and I bet they have something as well.

in Chicagoland we need 42" for egress and i have that to be a good rule of thumb, check with the fire marshall, as a just in case

Mcmaster has hydraulic cylinders, but I would use grainger. With a large enough throw you should be able to achieve what you want, but with it moving often and such a large piece, pneumatics might be the more reasonable option unless you already are set up with the valves and hydraulic pump...

I am familiar with Chicago scenic, I actually worked for the nonunion equivalent in Chicago for 3 years, they are on my list for when I need show control, just out of my price range for the bulk of the project, they do great work over there.

We built up platforming, that is how we had room to do what we needed

I have done it before with a show deck that I ran a pipe through the deck out of site, I then welded a gear to the end of the pipe and ran bike chain to an off stage gear and added a little handle, worked like a charm.

I already tried spiralifts, they just dont get low profile enough, the whole deck would sit at 2'

I have done it before by starting from scratch with the chair carpentry and just put it together with no glue. You can leave the joints loose, or undersize a few pieces so they never get tight. The trick is having extra pieces for when they break, because they will.