Tommy advice

[godd2]

Not sure where to put this post so I guess I will here. Next year, our theater director is planning on doing Tommy. we wont do it until jan. but are starting to think about it. some of the idea he is throwing out are things I have not really done so if anyone has any advice I would love to hear it.

There are issues with a mirror scene?

projections?

turntable and rack stage?

men jumping out of a plane?


we are a high school so budget is somewhat limited. but we do have resources...any advise on how to best go about putting on this show technically would be appreciated.

 

[ruinexplorer]

How about this, since you are looking at several aspects of the show that fall into several categories, let's break it up into different discussions. That way we can all brainstorm together and pull out the collective experience of the Booth.

The mirror scene sounds like you would need some help in special effects. Projections is a different part of the forum. The staging would end up in Carpentry. Men jumping out of a plane will depend on how you think you want to accomplish it. Obviously, on the last one, if you intend on rigging something to "fly" the performers, we always ask that you hire a professional group that is trained to do this type of stunt and has the equipment and personnel to accomplish it safely.

PM myself or any of the other moderators or Senior Team and we can help you ormulate your posts if necessary. I'm glad to hear that you are planning ahead with enough time to figure out how to do this safely while meeting your artistic vision.

 

[dbaxter]

We just finished a run of Tommy at our theater (www.blackfriars.org). You can look at the photos for ideas and watch ‪TommyOpen.flv‬‏ - YouTube to see how we did the opening with the parachute drop. Too bad I didn't see this earlier - we took apart the two pinball machines we built.

 

[coldnorth57]

I was part of a tommy 2 years ago, we did a parachute that dropped just in front of the actor and then a light from above flashed on tight special so it looked like he just dropped in very cool.

Here are some pics
http://www.judyrussellpresents.com/paradigm.swd/gallery/index.php?gallery=6

 

[BNEL]

I worked on a Tommy production two years ago. I can speak to the Mirror and airplane.

Mirror
We used a two way glass mirror that you see in intergation rooms in the movies. It acts the same as a scrim where if it is not lit from behind you can't see through it. We borrowed the mirror from another theater so I not sure how much it cost.

Airplane
We rigged a platform to have a trap door in it like if they were jumping out the bottom of a plane. Through not realistic it made the point. We also added a fan underneith the platform to blow fog back up through the trap.

Hope this helps.