Annie Get Your Gun tricks

[ddobrovi]

I read a post from 2007 (very informative and useful stuff wolf825, thank you).

I was wondering if in the last few years others have put on Annie Get Your Gun and have any ideas of how to design, build, and/or stage the following:

1. Tommy & Winnie's Knife Trick - I've seen the rentals. I would like to build our own. Has anyone done this and have any tips?

2. Annie's Big Trick - No trapeze... how have others staged it?? Are there any cool stage props you've built for it? I'm looking for anything other than the obvious, we had chorus girls pop balloons with pins" answer.

3. An Archery Triggered Confetti Drop - Now here's the kicker... I have an award winning state level archer in my cast. I would love to start out Act 2 with her coming out on stage, aiming at a target we have mounted within the fake proscenium (the very center 17 feet up - we have a large apron, the angle she would be firing up is not that steep), hitting it with an arrow, and triggering a confetti drop from that specific location.

4. The Bird Hat - Any ideas of how to build a hat that ill catapult a bird off of Dolly's hat when Annie shoots at it, or have any resources for us to rent one?

5. The Poodle Trick - I would love Frank to shoot the apple off the poodle's head very quickly in the opening scene. I'm not looking for anything too flashy, maybe just a plywood cutout of a poodle or a stylistic silhouette. Any ideas of how to rig an apple to fly off it.

Before you go and think I have no ideas for any of these, I do. I'm just using this place for what it's meant to be used for, and idea bank!!

I love this place and love the discussions I've been reading here for the last few years. Thanks for anyone taking even a single minute to consider any of the above. Tech rocks!

-Dan

 

[pmolsonmus]

I read a post from 2007 (very informative and useful stuff wolf825, thank you).

I was wondering if in the last few years others have put on Annie Get Your Gun and have any ideas of how to design, build, and/or stage the following:

1. Tommy & Winnie's Knife Trick - I've seen the rentals. I would like to build our own. Has anyone done this and have any tips?

-Dan

For a production of Pajama Game - (same type of stunt different show), we created the target with alternating colors with one being the color of a rubber type sheet that we cut a slit in - black/grey?

Behind the target we mounted the handles and the top part of the blade into 4 - 1 x 4 (or 2 x 4s) pieces of wood about 18" long. We mounted the 1x4s on the back of the target with spring coiled hinges so when open created a right angle on the back side of the target.
We put an eye hook on the back of the 1 x 4 (opposite the blade handle) and another eye hook above the slit in the target.
We then tied a thin line (fishing line or ???) strong enough to keep the hinge open.
So when fully prepped there was a series of wooden boards with blade handles pointing toward the ground (perpendicular) on spring coiled hinges, suspend by tie line.
A tech person was behind the target and on cue (stomp of the foot or visual) he cut the line.
The blade handle passes through the rubber slit and the wood slams against the wooden back of the target so the audience gets both sight and sound as the handle appears in the target. The rubber masks any light coming from behind the target and fits tight around the blade.

It can also be set to knock an apple off the person's head.

The noise is all the distraction the thrower needs to dispose of the prop knife.

Easy and cheap.

 

[derekleffew]

...Now here's the kicker... I have an award winning state level archer in my cast. I would love to start out Act 2 with her coming out on stage, aiming at a target we have mounted within the fake proscenium (the very center 17 feet up - we have a large apron, the angle she would be firing up is not that steep), hitting it with an arrow, and triggering a confetti drop from that specific location. ...

If she were an award-winner marksperson, would you let her fire a real gun or rifle?

Find another way. Even this show fakes it.

 

[damjamkato]

3. An Archery Triggered Confetti Drop - Now here's the kicker... I have an award winning state level archer in my cast. I would love to start out Act 2 with her coming out on stage, aiming at a target we have mounted within the fake proscenium (the very center 17 feet up - we have a large apron, the angle she would be firing up is not that steep), hitting it with an arrow, and triggering a confetti drop from that specific location.

I am by no means a weapons master, however in my opinion, using a live weapon on stage is extremely dangerous, even if safety precautions are made. Just because the archer is talented does not mean that nothing can go wrong. What if the archer gets distracted and the arrow misses? What if the weapon malfunctions? It comes down to the fact that a bow is a weapon, and needs to be treated as such, even though it isn't a modern weapon. I'd like to hear someone with more experience than me chime in, this is just my two cents.

EDIT: Whoops, derek snuck in ahead of me...

 

[MPowers]

Depending on just how complicated you want to get, a number of years ago I did an electro-pneumatic gag for the dressing room knife toss in "A Little Night Music"

Set up -
1. Stage is 3/4 round, the folding dressing screen the knife is to stick into (pop out of) is visible from all sides.
2. After the gag, the Director wants the actor to walk over to the knife, pull it out of the screen, cut an apple into slices then stab the knife into the table top and leave it standing there as he leaves.

Method:

First the fancy dressing room screen was a 4 panel screen that was never actually opened up during the scene, so it was constructed in a permanently half folded position that created a closed space for the mechanism.

There were two actuators, one to "POP" the knife out and a second to pull the retaining pin out of the blade so it could be removed from the screen.

There were also two valves (3 if you count the system valve needed for refilling). the first was a 5 way 3 port NC solenoid valve used to release the knife actuator. The second was a Clippard NC pilot time delay valve, when it received air pressure at the pilot inlet, it started an adjustable timer (bleeder valve) that then opened the main valve after the preset time.

The knife actuator was a Clippard 3/4" bore - 6" stroke, double acting cylinder. Air supply was a refillable paintball tank, filled with 150 psi shop air, not CO2. The safety pin retractor cylinder was a Clippard 1/2" bore, 1" stroke.

The second valve and cylinder for the safety pin were added after the first set of trials in the shop revealed the spring clip holding the knife blade could not hold the knife when the cylinder popped, if it was to be weak enough for the actor to pull it out. In fact the first trial, the knife flew about 30' across the shop.

In the final design, the knife, spring clip and the second cylinder were on a small sled on guide rails pushed by the first cylinder, forcing the knife handle and most of the blade straight back through a thin slit in a Lycra square on the screen face. no hinged or flip to the knife, just straight back. The pattern was a highly decorated damask brocade with an intricate pattern so the fake panel, about 4" square, looked just the same as the other sections of the pattern and the slit was invisible from just a couple of feet, and the Lycra closed back, tight around the blade. The only part that didn't mesh with reality was when the blade was pulled, the Lycra closed up completely and there was no visible "hole" in the panel where the knife "Had Been"!

The final part of the puzzle was a radio controlled relay (like a garage door opener or steering mechanism on a radio controlled car). The Performing arts park was just outside of the city and no houses or businesses within a mile of the stage. However we still had a radio guy come in and test the area for any stray signals that might accidentally trigger the gimmick. We also set the threshold fairly high so the controller had to be within about 30' to trigger the gag.

Power supply was a 12V lawn tractor battery.

Gag in action:

Actor fakes throwing the very dull, no point fake knife with a hole drilled through the blade just like the gag knife for the safety pin, and palms the fake look-a-like. Technician presses button, RC relay opens the first valve. This pops the knife out and provides pilot and actuating pressure to the second cylinder, starting the timing sequence. After about 1/2 second, time enough for the knife to come to a complete stop and stop vibrating, the second valve opens and the small cylinder slowly pulls the hardened pin out of the knife blade allowing the actor to easily pull the knife from the screen. At first thought I was convinced the director would not like the "thunk" as the first cylinder slammed home, but in practice the noise sounded much like a knife hitting a solid target, serendipity! I added a flow control valve (Oh yeah, valve #4) to the exhaust of the small cylinder to slow it down and silence it, no thunk needed there. It took about a full second for the pin to pull out of the knife blade, nice and easy!

The knife did have to have a bit of an edge to cut the apple but the point was still blunt and the table gag was a block of florists foam set in the table and painted to match and the knife was stuck in that.

The two knives were treated like a loaded stage weapon. Both were locked in a weapons case and handed by the weapons master,directly to the actor and the tech who prepped the FX each night. When the scene was over the weapons master collected the knives, inspected them and locked them up. Neither knife was ever out on a prop table.