Cinderella

[scott meikle]

This christmas my school is doing Cinderella, now from previous talk with the head of drama, I think he will want me to take charge in SM lighting and sound.

 

Firstly If anyone has done this production before do they have any tips on; Effects, Set design and how you could run this play.

 

would we need; smoke, haze or anything else to hire in, so I can draw up a plan and some sort of budget. (Pyros are a no I belive but I havn't looked into this.)

 

Basically I've not done much to do with set design and would like some type of help. To give me a view on what could be done.

 

Problems I know already;

We have no real way of changeing Scene backing, Ie. We have a back wall and fixing points to drape a canvas.

 

Budget may be tight.

 

We dont have a great deal of room to store items of set.

 

 

Any ideas would be great and if anyone has pictures of there set, please could you post?

 

Thanks Scott

 

If you need more info, please PM me or post here.

[GridGirl]

Talk to your director and find out their vision for the piece; read the script, making notes of anything that is required; work out a preliminary plan based on what the director has said and what you've gained from reading the script; try and fit your plan in with your budget; adapt your plan so it fits in with your budget. And yes, you're right, if you're a school student and under 18 then pyros are a no-no. There's nothing that says you must have smoke or haze, but there's nothing that says you can't have it. If you find a need for it, use it. I could post some pictures of the last time I did Cinderella, but they'd be no use to you because it was in a full flying house with a decent budget. We had a pumpkin coach with real Shetland ponies to pull it, pyros all over the place, and about the most beautiful backcloth I have ever seen for the exterior of the castle. Have a look here for pictures of the set (the links at the top of that page will take you to production photos as well) but I rather fear it's a little out of your range.

[k.gen04]

Also, could be worth trying to see a video or similar of it. I'm doing Joseph and his Technicolor Dreamcoat next year, and the first thing I did was find, and watch, the DVD of it. Sure, they may have a bigger budget than you, but it gives you some idea of what to expect, and something to base ideas on.

[paulears]

The original story has locations that can be reduced to the kitchen, the palace and an outside scene where the tree/shed etc is. Ideal for periaktoi - 3 sided rotatable scenery panels which take up little floor area and then spin in or out of sight to change location - like those clever advertising hoardings. You can easily build these with some 50x50 timber and some hardboard/mdf. An ideal solution for the solid back wall problem. All you need then is a few practical features that can be wheeled on and off.

[sleah]

There's nothing wrong with having no backdrop as such, i.e. just a plain drape or plain wall, it could be used as a cyc if you wanted different colours.

Then just use practicals as suggested by Paul.

Good costumes and props, lighting design, and even good actors (if there is such a thing ) will detract from a lack of back drop.

 

Something I have learnt from the BR is you can put on a darn good production with almost nothing :** laughs out loud **:

[Unfathomable]

In my last year at school we did west side story and the director came up with the idea of movable 8ft by 3ft corrugated perspex. 12 members of crew with a bit of training can reproduce anything. In a school slave labour is easy to find.

 

We had one side black and the other with a design on. make sure its matt paint or lighting it is hell.

[Big Jay]

I love very simple ideas, and I also like the idea of not needing a backdrop, IMO, alot of theatre setting should be left to the audience to make up, leaving hints and let them fill in the blanks

 

http://www.lucinda.net/wbo/graphics/chandelier.jpg

 

This Picture, take out painting and the back flats, and chandelier, 1. I think would look good as the ballroom with maybe more than 1 chandelier, with a few drapes and 2. Leaves the audiance to fill in the rest.

 

Is this making sense to anyone?

[paulears]

Made me think a little of Dad's Army, which as an old fan I went to see as a punter. A flown in window frame, a carried on office desk etc - it worked really well - and nice to see imagination still works filling in the missing gaps.

[scott meikle]

The play is based on the grim brothers version of the story, does anyone know where I can get a script from?

 

Thanks scott

[paulears]

It depends on which one your teacher is going to use. Most of these old stories have been re-written by far too many people to guess, morphing into every different Cinderella script around. Simplest is just to wait and see which version you're going to use - don't waste your time would be my advice.