julieleanne Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 hi all, need a bit of help here please.... I am going to direct a play that requires a trapdoor in the floor which is (it appears ) to be an integrel part of the show. actors must be able to go up and down from the cellar. the problem is our Civic Centre where we hold our productions doesn't have one... its a solid floor. any suggestions? cheers Julie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.elsbury Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 Build a false stage floor?Put the "cellar enterance" on stage left, or stage right, where the actors have to go up a staircase/ramp, and then descend down?Use smoke/lighting/pyro to hide the fact that an actor just ran offstage, rather than descended into the cellar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w/robe Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 Once did Hobson's Choice where there was a set of stairs going up to the upper floors of the shop and then a door under them which is where a cellar door would be. So long as the cast closed the small door on stage before opening the door to exit through the back of the set it looked as if they were going to go down stairs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy_s Posted October 31, 2008 Share Posted October 31, 2008 locate an imaginary trap door upstage of a convenient sofa, then encourage the actor to do some Marcel Marceau "going down stairs in a strong wind while trapped behind a glass wall" type acting. This will highlight the skills of the actor and give them a great opportunity to show off their multi-talented personalities.... alternatively (and less tongue-in-cheek), I have a Hobson's Choice story to match that of my colleague W/robe - different production though - this was a touring version and not all venues had basements or trap facilities, so instead of raising the floor up (a good idea, but may lead to difficulties if the stage is already raised above the front row), there were simply a set of treads behind a flat leading up to a small window - all textual references in the script to "cellar" were changed to "attic". No-one who hadn't seen the play before or read the original script would have known that any change had been made. looking at it from the other direction, there's also a Trestle Theatre show called "Top Storey" which is set in an attic. Actors made their entrances by crawling on their bellies from offstage through a sort of tunnel disguised as a water tank, I think, then "up" through a trapdoor raised about 2' (or possibly only 18") off the floor. There were three performers, one a fairly petite actress, but the other two were quite big blokes, so it must have been a bit of a tight squeeze, but very convincing! another "cellar" show is Sweeney Todd - I worked on a version (also touring) with no possibility of a basement, so there was a door in one side of the set which "led" to the cellar (as per W/robe's and David's suggestions)- the bodies were wheeled off on an old market-stall barrow, and then "came into" the cellar through another doorway in the set - the change of location within the house was indicated with lighting - from "warm, cosy groundfloor" to "moist, clammy subterranean". Not what you'd call an example of Naturalism in the theatre, but dramatically quite effective. Like W/robes "Hobson's" example above, there were real, visible stairs to an upper floor, that suggested on a subliminal level that there would be "real" but invisible stairs going down behind the door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peternewman Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 Similar to what David suggested, I was involved in a show which had the same kind of requirements, we added a thrust out into the audience which included a modified bit of deck to give us our trap door. This obviously relies on the existing seating being flexible enough to accommodate the additional space required at the front. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julieleanne Posted November 22, 2008 Author Share Posted November 22, 2008 :unsure: Thanks Guys! we have changed our minds with the choice of play and are now going to do the Brit Sit-com 'Allo 'Allo, which doesn't need a trap door. but thanks for the suggestions anyway... will keep them all in mind for future reference. ciao! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoLiEn Posted November 22, 2008 Share Posted November 22, 2008 also keep in mind the idea a company had when they came to us, piece of steel deck, trap door cut into it, and they put that of the front of the stage and built round it as well. mind you, they did have a bit of money!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chriscave Posted November 29, 2008 Share Posted November 29, 2008 use the floor below stage level, take out a couple of rows of seats and extend the the stage using a deck of some sort with a hole cut in, so have the cellar level with the audience, although this would depend heavily on the layout of your theatre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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