Beds for Peter Pan

[csilvia9]

I am starting production on Peter Pan with my Middle school theater group. I did a search on CB for beds but did not see anything on the subject. For the nursery scene in PP I need 3 beds for the children. As a lot of schools, our stage has almost 0 space off stage for props and scenery. Does anyone have an idea how I can cheaply ( I hate to use that word but I have to stretch my budget as much as possible, but will not compromise safety) construct a bed that could be easily collapsed for storage? I was thinking to keep the things light to carve the head boards from foam, but need a platform design that could fold up.
In advance thanks for any advice given.
Chris

 

[Synchronize]

I believe there is a good example in the Illustrated Theatre Production Guide. Though I don't have the book with me to confirm, I believe the design featured collapsible x-bracing that folded up to just the depth of your lumber. If somebody with the book could confirm that this is the book I'm thinking of (I believe is in a chapter about decking or temporary staging), I would appreciate it. Or, Chris, if you are active with technical theatre, or just enjoy technical theatre, I would recommend this book anyway. It's pretty cheap compared to other similar books, and it's a great reference guide or an enjoyable read-through.

 

[alyx92]

What about constructing the bed sort of telescopically, so that you can push the bottom half into the top half of the bed, saving 50% of the beds space?

 

[csilvia9]

I believe there is a good example in the Illustrated Theatre Production Guide. Though I don't have the book with me to confirm, I believe the design featured collapsible x-bracing that folded up to just the depth of your lumber. If somebody with the book could confirm that this is the book I'm thinking of (I believe is in a chapter about decking or temporary staging), I would appreciate it. Or, Chris, if you are active with technical theatre, or just enjoy technical theatre, I would recommend this book anyway. It's pretty cheap compared to other similar books, and it's a great reference guide or an enjoyable read-through.

THanks I will add this to my wish list of books.

 

[venuetech]

rarely does a stage bed need to be full size. shrink them down to a minimum size.

 

[kiwitechgirl]

We had a very similar problem on a production of Les Mis - except there was only one bed! The end result was that the props department built a bed where the two side rails slotted into the bed ends in such a way that they could pivot freely. The bed base and mattress locked onto the rails somehow (I can't remember exactly how, it was ten years ago!) and held the whole thing square, but when you took the base off, you could "fold" the frame so that the whole thing flattened out - the two ends wound up being next to each other rather than parallel to each other. That's not a great explanation but hopefully it makes sense. The only other way I can think of explaining it is that if you put the headboard up against a wall, you could push the bed end to the side of it so that it was almost against the wall as well. The mattress was attached to the base, and just got stored sitting on its end against a wall and took up virtually no space.

 

[kicknargel]

You could build them similar to the parallel system of platform construction. It should be outlined in any basic scenic carpentry book, or maybe can be found here. To simplify, picture this: the bed is a five-sided box. To collapse, lift the top off. The four sides are hinged together such that they can fold flat (it's the top that holds them in position). There's lots of best practices for the details, but that's the basic idea.

 

[chausman]

It should be outlined in any basic scenic carpentry book, or maybe can be found here.

And here is? There appears to be no link.

 

[shiben]

And here is? There appears to be no link.

On CB, of Course.

 

[kicknargel]

In fact, if you click the underlined word "parallel" in my post you'll go to the glossary page, which will take you to this link

Platforming Article #1

which has a nice description by our own MPowers.

 

[chausman]

In fact, if you click the underlined word "parallel" in my post you'll go to the glossary page, which will take you to this link

Platforming Article #1

which has a nice description by our own MPowers.

Thanks for the link. Parallel didn't link to anything in your other post.

 

[csilvia9]

Thanks for the link. Parallel didn't link to anything in your other post.

Yes thanks to everyone for the help, this totally makes sense to me.
I am even thinking, since this is the first scene that inflatable beds could work. I am just not sure about the deflation time.