Our House - jack-in-box clown hat and flappy-ears dog hat

[cedd]

Hi all

Unusual task, we're doing Our House in a month or so, and in the scene where Joe's looking for jobs, he goes to several interviews, 2 of which involve costumed characters with trick hats.

One is a dog, whose ears need to snap upwards when he hears Joe has a criminal record.

Likewise the clown's hat pops open like a jack in the box when he hears the news.

 

I'd had a few thoughts. The dog could be really simple, a lever going into the ear, with a cantilever as it enters the hat, and a piece of string that when pulled downwards by the performer, raises the ears. The clown hat could be again cast triggered, and just be a catch with a hinged lid and either a sprung jack in the box, or some of those expanding pop up coloured snake things. The kind magicians and panto casts like to have in tins of baked beans.

 

Before I get to work building, I wondered if anyody else had such a thing kicking around after their production of it? Or any ideas on better ways to build it.

I have a reputation of being able to come up with suitably geeky props at the drop of a hat. Last time round was a remote control toto for the Wizard of Oz. I did toy with a remote control release achanism for this one, but I think simpler is better.

 

Chris

[Ynot]

Well, whilst I've not seen more than brief snippets of rehearsals, it's on at my venue this week - might be worth a call to them to see if they've done anything similar to what you're asking.

 

I also know they've got a few Moggy Minor panels (wings and bonnet at least) that they're using in "Driving In My Car" (It's not quite a Jag-u-ar...)

 

:)

[cedd]

That's brilliant, thanks!

Not sure what's going to happen with the car yet. I'll have a word with the powers that be!

[Ali2580]

Chris,

 

We are lighting a production of it which runs next week and I know that Scenic projects are providing all the scenery etc. for our production so I'm not sure if they are also providing hats you talk about? Might be worth a call and they might be able to point you in the right direction.

 

As I say, I'm not 100% sure as I only saw the scenery briefly yesterday, which involved a very lovely full size pink car. Not sure what type of car however the tax disc said '64. :)

 

A

[clurston]

I've just started pre for 'Our House'. Rehersals start in January, and the run is the first week in March! At the moment there are SO many 'how are we going to do x' moments its just ridiculous... I look forward to finding out how people have tackled the dog and the clown... and any other little tips you could give me would be brilliant!

 

Cheers,

 

C x

 

(Edited to remove the stupid amount of exclamation marks I used...I'm excited about this one!)

[cedd]

It's one of those shows that just makes a wardrobe and props department's heads swim! Luckily I'm only lighting crew for this one, but as in all amateur theatre, being seen as a reasonably tachnically able person (geeky in their words), I seem to get all the jobs that involve a bit of engineering!

 

The hat is going to be pretty straightforward. I already have a very large catering coffee drum which will form the body of the hat. Spring loaded hinged lid will have some form of catch (I have a bucket full of 9v geared motors, so I may well motorise it) triggered by the performer. The lid will be holding back a set of those springy snake things that magicians use. I'll probably glue these into the base of the hat so it doesn't leave them all over the stage!

 

The dog hat - we may have to talk to somebody about that one! Does seem like quite a big build, especially as it's actually a full head covering. The costume department will have to come up with something and then I'll make the ears work I think!

 

This is all of course if none of the above contacts (thanks all) bring up any fruit.

[Ali2580]

Hey just an update, as we are doing our production of Our House this week.

 

The tricks you are after are pretty much the ways you have suggested. I'm on the lighting crew so don't get close enough to actually find out however for both costumes there is small triggers used by the cast at their sleeves to set them off.

 

Also, for all those doing this production in the future: It really is Madness! For all departments!

[cedd]

Thanks Ali.

I know all about it really being Madness. We're building our own set instead of hiring, and the plans are incredibly complicated. I thought that being on lighting crew would make life easier - we do "big" lighting quite well already, so there's nothing new there (30 movers, couple of digispots and lots of LED colour blocks) but then I looked at the followspotting required - it's incredibly hard work!

[clurston]

Hi there! It definitely is madness, and we've not even started building yet! Seen the plans though, and all credit to our set designer, he's managed to make it (relatively) simple, functional and good-looking! Question: What are you doing about the spinning doors!?

 

Fspotting = headache!

 

Cx

 

Thanks Ali.

I know all about it really being Madness. We're building our own set instead of hiring, and the plans are incredibly complicated. I thought that being on lighting crew would make life easier - we do "big" lighting quite well already, so there's nothing new there (30 movers, couple of digispots and lots of LED colour blocks) but then I looked at the followspotting required - it's incredibly hard work!

[cedd]

Aha, the doors!

 

Fortunately we already have a set of 4 rotating solid flats, so we've just cut a doorway in each of them. Plans had originally been for "toblerone" type, 3 sided flats, but these went out of the window. Was also hoped to get Robe banner rotators in the top of them so we had control over positioning.

 

We also have tracks upstage in front of our riser with full height flats on them, so they can slide into place to make a full wall (Casey Street) across the stage, at which point people standing on the riser behind can look through the upstairs windows. The walls then slide out on their tracks and you have the riser exposed, and the car lives underneath it. Dead simple but going to look pretty good.

 

Constuction has started on the dog hat. I'm making the "skeleton" for it, then handing it to the costume department who are going to turn it into a dog. So far I have a hard hat as a base, with a pair of spring loaded "ears" made from plastic that shoot up when released. The hat is more straightforward, just requiring some kind of catch on a spring loaded lid that holds those joke chop "snake in a tin" things from coming out.

[cedd]

Hi all

Just to wind this topic up a little. I succesfully built both of these, and they worked perfectly every night, so thanks for the help!

 

The Dog was based around a hard hat. I attached hinged and sprung ears to it so that when released they'd snap upright. I then held them down with a split pin fastened through the ear and then goint through a hole in the side of the hat. Another pin through the head of the split pin held the ear in place. Puling a length of fishing line running through pipes to get it out of the hat, released the ears. A member of the costume department then attached some fur to make a pretty good dog.

 

The hat was dead simple. 2 of those tubes of joke snakes dsiguised as a tin of nuts, or whatever. These were attached inside the top of the hat with a hinged door covering them and holding the contents in. Releasing another pin similar to the dog hat released the snakes, which wer tethered on with fishing line to stop them falling everywhere.

In the end they only used one snake in each tube, which was a little dissapointing, but they were a pain to load back in again otherwise.

 

Anyway, these props are now in the store of Brassneck Theatre Company (Leeds), along with a full set including sliding and revolving flats, and an opening "garage" built into the back wall for the car to come out of (but they hired the car in). Should anybody be interested in hiring any of the above, I'm sure they'd be available. Just drop me a PM and I can put you in touch.