Set and Staging for Wizard of Oz

[bendalton8]

Hello all,

 

The college that I am studying at are putting a on small cast version of the Wizard of OZ. I'm set designing for the show with next to no budget and really struggling to come up with ideas that can be done whilst accommodating such a low budget. Everywhere that I have looked to hire anything (cloths, farm house in Kansas, Emerald City) have unfortunately been way to expensive, and I am getting to the point where I am running out of ideas to make the show as could as it can be without looking tacky and cheap.

 

Any help with either good places of hire, or good, easy ways to build parts of the set would be greatly appreciated.

 

Cheers

[vinntec]

Any help with either good places of hire, or good, easy ways to build parts of the set would be greatly appreciated.

I have lit lots of show on very tight budgets - only a few weeks ago Dr Dolittle put on by the local Girl Guides. One technique several set designers use is to have one or two static pieces which can be quickly turned into multiple scenes. For Dr Dolittle there were two such: One that was fixed and was a judge's rostrum, a study fireside, ship's bridge with doors to ships cabins, and a straw-roofed hut. The transformation was all cosmetic - a piece of hardboard which pretended to be a straw roof, a simple wheel and a hoisted sail plus ship's name plus a couple of cheapo lamps I bought off the internet to indicate ship, plain (with atmospheric LX) to indicate court, a simple hoisted tent sides to indicate circus tent. The second unit was the court's dock, the study wall + stable door and rotated became the giant pink snail. Of course I had to support these transformations with appropriate lighting both on and behind to complete the illusion. It didn't look cheap but was done on a shoe-string all made by hand (using chipboard - yuck) and lit using the theatre's + my theatre's resources.

 

I have also lit Oklahoma on a tiny village hall stage. In this case, they used reversible flats so each unit was used in at least two scenes. The outside ranch house was painted in perspective to make it look much deeper than it was (even with actors entering from upstage). The stage was so small that the flats not in use had to be stored on stage and be disguised.

 

I am not a set designer - but you need to work out all the scenes you must have. Which ones can you combine into a chameleon unit or a reversible flat/unit? Which can you make yourself? What can you beg, borrow, or steal? Then you have to use your imagination as to what is possible, what can be left to the lighting designer (for instance Dr D has a cell scene - a simple "bars" gobo was sufficient on a darkened stage) .

 

One of the things you will find out - if your illusion has worked, the audience will imagine all sorts of details which weren't there and compliment you for it! I did Guys and Dolls with a hired set, but we couldn't fly any cloths so decided to leave "New York" in the background throughout. We were complimented on the atmospheric mission scenery - which was actually a few benches and a table with appropriate lighting and New York clearly in the background not the mission walls that they had imagined. See photo although this was towards the end of the scene but there is the table and there are the benches - and behind is a NYC street.

 

Do your homework and come up with some ideas of your own. Look for similar shows on the internet and youtube and see what other people have done. Then bounce your ideas off the blueroom and see what others think.

[paulears]

Periaktoi work pretty well for shows when budget or space is tightIf you design and build them carefully, you can do a great deal with them, and some carefully planned scene changes.

[vinntec]

Periaktoi work pretty well for shows when budget or space is tightIf you design and build them carefully, you can do a great deal with them, and some carefully planned scene changes.

An example of which are these "toblerones" used for Pygmalion which were three-sided and made three different scenes. If you copy periaktoi into a search engine you will see lots of examples of this ancient technique - but beware of stability!

[alistermorton]

We've used periaktoi successfully with carpet on the bottom to help them turn easily on the stage without a scraping noise. One we had recently was trapezoid and had a window in one face, with a cyc painting inside which was lit (from inside the structure using Coda) to give the illusion of looking out over a house's gardens.