Stage Braces and quick box set scene changes.

[ship]

Question came up on the Question of the Day part of the forum about what this thing was in the corner?

I grew up with the use of such things as a stage brace , flat cleats, lash line cleats, swivel bars etc. right out of the Burris-Meyer “Scenery for the Theater” bible for scenery.

While in later years I didn’t do many box set type quick set changes such concepts grew up out of - set either changed in often doing different styles of set or it was flown in, or it didn’t change at all often. Still though in doing a modern box set show with quick full set changes between scenes, how do people do them these days? This also a question of if anyone is still using soft flats or hard flats with the framing on flat these days. Kind of romantic perhaps days of my past in dealing with mice, crackled finishes to the flats after a few dozen coats of paint and rips/tears etc.

Still though, anyone out there with a full theater in doing box sets with full between the scenes set changes? What are you doing for them? Expect steel or aluminum tubing could be pinned together or use other modern methods at a little more expense or even lumber could get C-Clamps if Hollywood style but screwing the set together wouldn’t really be an option for a quick scene change given the noise of the drill and time needed to remove the screws.

Assuming a box set that needs a quick - not just intermission set change between scenes and perhaps even a return to that set during the show... how do you do it?

 

[zuixro]

We have a ton of soft flats, but we are covering them with Luan as we use them in shows. We lash our flats together, then screw them to 1 by braces, and screw that to the stage. The only time I've seen a stage brace was when I was up in the cats leading to FOH of another theatre, laying off to the side of the catwalk. It looked like it had been there a while. We've done some massive box sets (like an entire house, two floors), but never any with changes. We would probably do a scene on one of the side stages if we needed a completely different location. When we did Leading Ladies, we dropped the grand and did the part at the Moose Lodge on the apron (BIG apron), and the train scene on the side stage. That was the show with the two story set. There was really no way to do a scene change, that set was built like a house.

 

[ajb]

I've actually never worked on (or heck, even seen) a multi-scene big box set. Don't think many people are doing that sort of production these days, everything is less realistic and more concept-y. This probably has something to do with the rise of the small, low budget producing company for whom box sets aren't possible due to limitations in space, time, manpower, and budget. I also think there's a lot more reliance and fly systems and casters to solve scene changing problems--have we just gotten lazy, or too cheap to pay for a large run crew? Or is there a purely aesthetic motivation? When you think about the simple mechanics, though, a handful of stagehands can do a whole lot of things that fly systems and wagons can't, so the 'old fashioned' way offers some interesting design possibilities.

That said, if I found myself faced with executing a box set with full changes, I wouldn't hesitate to use braces and lash cleats and give a bit of a history lesson to my crew. Until then, my stage braces will sit in the corner until I need to reach up and fish a cable across the grid or untangle a line.

 

[gafftapegreenia]

I just honestly cannot remember the last time I heard of a show doing multiple box sets with fast scene changes "like they used to".

 

[Footer]

Labor is way to expensive anymore to do that type of thing. In fact, I can't even remember a show when I had someone pick up a flat and move it without it being on casters of some sort. Unless labor is free, many places push for 1 or 2 people on deck for a show. Many regional houses are getting heavily automated because it is cheaper to rent/buy automation gear then to pay one or two people to be a every show. This last show I did it was like pulling teeth to get 4 people on our deck crew!

 

[ship]

Labor is way to expensive anymore to do that type of thing. In fact, I can't even remember a show when I had someone pick up a flat and move it without it being on casters of some sort. Unless labor is free, many places push for 1 or 2 people on deck for a show. Many regional houses are getting heavily automated because it is cheaper to rent/buy automation gear then to pay one or two people to be a every show. This last show I did it was like pulling teeth to get 4 people on our deck crew!

Yea, I know the feeling... man-hours alone for a project I just bidded on added up to half the cost of doing it. Still though Its sorry to read that free labor ain't doing the old shows designed around such concepts or that other shows take a more immediate role in learning the craft. Many ways to do it and also curious as to other ways now it's done. Is it more because or plastered walls as opposed to dutchman seams as realistic in an extreme where as set don't butt up or just such plays are not done these days? Box set that's quicklessy and easily removable between scenes that perhaps has to come back later in the play... Perhaps even of the soft flat ilk though not persay as a question a set requirement. Other ways of removable box sets? Thinking there is other ways out there these days but techniques I don't know about these days in being curious.

 

[NevilleLighting]

I agree Ship, usually the finish level expected on box sets these days precludes any old school type of scene changes. The last box set I did had some scene changes that we accomplished through a series of rotating walls and one set where the whole wall pushed onstage and there was a wagon behind it. No change required more than two hands, matching what Footer talked about, labor costs are often paramount. Sad but true. Crew can be replaced by machines but at least their positions can't be outsourced to companies in India.

I guess the bottom line is that when you are designing these days you need to be very creative to solve these issues, the old "think outside the box set" issue.