Break-Thru paper scenery

[WiLL]

Hi all,

doing a production of 'Gypsy' in which the director would like at points for the cast to burst through a paper panel in the scenery as part of a vaudeville act. Any recommendations on paper from people who have seen this done or done it themselves? I was thinking possibly that cheap banqueting roll you can get as it needs to be over a metre wide.

[Robin D]

You may find banqueting roll is too tough. Much of it is treated to be semi waterproof so is actually very strong.

 

Large sheets of tissue are available but of course almost see through. You might want to consider hinged odd shaped panels in a frame that form the broken shape you want, with the outer surface covered with tissue. You just need a fresh tissue coating for each show. A good shove on any of the larger pieces than creates the breakout, but will leave ragged edges on the tissue.

[ImagineerTom]

The type of paper is largely irrelevant (and personally I've always preferred a heavy duty paper so that you don't have to handle the prop with kid gloves) as when you burst through paper it actually looks nothing like you'd imagine it would. You actually need to "cheat" and using a knife carefully cut a "perforation" line in the middle of the paper and tell the performer to aim for that, otherwise the paper actually starts to tear somewhere else (the weakest spot) and it all gets messy. Just one or two perforation lines - don't go trying to control more than where the paper starts to tear as once the tear has started it will follow the path it wants to follow; no matter how many perforation lines you put in the paper.

[Dave m]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Overstitch-Wheel-Leather-stitch-spacing-Paper-perforating-tool-roulette-2mm-/321113360744

[Jivemaster]

Some newspaper printers will let short rolls of newsprint go for little money -they will not use a roll less than hundreds of metres.

 

Colorama photo background paper could be useful but it is the thickest rolled paper I've ever seen or walked on so it will need lots of preparation but it does come in huge rolls IIRC it's in 9ft and 12ft wide rolls

 

Also consider where the waste paper is going to sit on stage if you need several entrances during the show there will be a LOT of mess filled space.

 

What about something like a vertical slatted blind, either the cast push the slats aside or they break the slats and the waste is taken off by strings.

[the kid]

Seawhite, John Purcell paper, will supply rolls of a good width but it does cost .

[Shez]

You may find banqueting roll is too tough. Much of it is treated to be semi waterproof so is actually very strong.

You must be using the posh stuff :) The rolls that I've encountered have been easily torn.

[WiLL]

Thanks for that guys, all helpful stuff. I'll let you know how I get on.

[WiLL]

Just for some post-production info I ended up using banqueting roll bought in 25m x 1.2m rolls from an online company for about a fiver a roll I think. Worked perfectly when I stopped trying to staple it into the frame (it just tore off the staples) and gaffa'd it in instead. Didn't perforate it, just cut a small slit in the centre with a knife blade to start the tearing off in the right place.