Simple freestanding backdrops — scene changes?

[Amy Worrall]

I'm considering set for a pantomime. We perform in a village hall, there's a stage with a proscenium, but no facilities for hanging/flying anything, and not much wing space. The stage is about 7m wide.

We need three scenes: town, forest and inside the castle.

Initially I'd thought we could get away with two scenes (town and forest) — for that, I had the idea of making the town out of freestanding flats, which we have plenty of. Then for forest, using a cloth backdrop, attached to the flats at the top. For scene change, the stagehands just pull the cloth backdrop over to the front of the flats, or pull it back to hang down behind them to go in reverse.

But now we're considering three scenes. I think two separate cloth backdrops attached in this manner would be fairly unwieldy. The "inside castle" scene would be fine if the forest was visible out the castle window, if that helps. Does anyone have any bright ideas?

To avoid doubt, I must emphasise the need for things that are low budget and easy to do scene changes. There are some people in our company who are of the opinion that the pantomime should have no backdrop at all — that's what we did last year, and I made the forest scene by projecting gobos on the back wall. It looked fairly good, but proper set would have looked better. If I can come up with an idea that I can convince people is not too much effort, then I'd like to propose it!

 

[urban79]

How about using periaktois (sp)? Take three stock flats and hinge them together to form a triangle. Then you just turn the triangle to the side you want and voila, three separate settings!

Chris

 

[MNicolai]

How about using periaktois (sp)? Take three stock flats and hinge them together to form a triangle. Then you just turn the triangle to the side you want and voila, three separate settings!

My favorite example of this:

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[BillConnerFASTC]

I have on a couple of occasions been able to anchor a wire rope left to right, above head height, and hang drops on it like a shower curtain. It will sag - how much based on the attachments . The obviousness of it being a drop may fit with the pantomime style. And it doesn't have to fill stage - just a good size patch behind might do it - a king size flat sheet, a painters drop cloth, etc. Paint with dye and make it glow a little with a light behind.

 

[Amiers]

My favorite example of this:

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I listened to that whole thing thins morning doing my morning chores. I had to stop a few times to pull out my phone to say wtf lol.

 

[Van]

Once did a travelling production, producing in many spaces the size of the one you describe, Periaktois were what made it possible. If you build them so two of the flats are held together with double swing hinges the whole thing will fold flat for transport in a lorry (look I used English vernacular!)