[lt.shaw]

Has anyone preformed the show and can help me?

I am curious about the set, I heard it is rather exaggerated? Can it be done in a easy cost effictive way?
thanks

[Holly]

Our set was done really cheaply.

Let me see if I can find some sort of picture...

Well, here's the closest I could really find. I know you can see almost nothing, heh.

Our theatre has a staircase leading up to a high platform. (You can see the start of the stairs behind me.) The high platform was where Fred's bed was, but we had a pull thing that "revealed" the mattresses along the side of the platform, which I (playing the queen) pulled at some point during the show.

A lot of shows make the mattresses as a free-standing thing, but ours were cloth with it drawn on, heh. Please ignore how ultimately horrible I look in this picture, but these were our mattresses.

We also have two doorways built in, leading backstage, one of which you can see behind me and one under said platform, which was good for all the entrances/exits.

The only time we didn't use this basic structure was the scene when Larken and the others are hiding from the queen, then someone sneezes? We are in a tiny theatre (50, 60 seats) and have a staircase on the far side of the theatre, connecting the stage/house to the light booth and another row of seats. They hid on that. I'm guessing the audience could barely see them, but eh, it worked!

The rest of the stage was painted like you can see behind me in that first picture, and things were hung on the walls, etc.


It was a really low-budget production for us and it worked out pretty well. Everything had to be disassembled at the end of the night - we were the second show renting the theatre, and they got priority over us, therefore we couldn't leave a single thing behind. We actually lucked out - the other show was the one who painted the walls!

Wooooh, long, rambly post. Sorry! I realize you didn't ask for a description of our sets, and pictures probably would have been so much easier, but...the answer to your question is yes, it can be done cost effectively.

[Set_Buildin_Dad]

We did this show for the Jr High production last year and the sets looked pretty good. We spent a total of about $1200 on the set construction. I'd post some pictures if I could figure out how to do it. I'll experiment some then try re-posting.[/img]

[Set_Buildin_Dad]

I think I figured it out. (First you have to set up a photobucket account.) Here are photos of our OUAM sets.

The basic castle set.


Stairs moved for a platform for "Shy"


The Wizards Tower


Fred in the bed with the Mockingbird of Samarkand


Fred and Dauntless on the Bed during the Finale

[PappyCat]

That's a really lovely set!

[Set_Buildin_Dad]

Nice to hear that from someone else who's done the show.

We scrounged and re-used as much as we could, but needed to build the platform across the back of the stage, the staircases, and the tower/bed prop. Me and a couple of other dads did it in a month of weekends.

The tough piece was the tower. It was semi-circular with curved doors.

Well on to the next project. I'm building a rickshaw this weekend for Hot Mikado.

[PappyCat]

We did ours on an incredibley small stage...absolutely NO curtain, so all our set changes had to be crazy simple. It's cool to see what people with a larger workspace/room for set changes can do.

[Set_Buildin_Dad]

We never closed the curtain either. Our directors don't like to do that. they feel it interrupts the continuity. We just have the actors move the sets as part of the show, sometimes in the middle of a number.

[norayouadora]

[wicked_diva]

We had a scrim in, so not a single set change happened in front of the audience. It was really nice. If I can find my photo cd, I'll try to post some pictures. The set was fairly extensive, considering how tiny our wings were, but very doable. We had a set of stairs leading offstage, a castle entrance flat, some tent flats, a door flat (for Fred's room), and a table and chairs... I think that's it.

[PappyCat]

Ours was a basic "castle" backdrop and than different larger scenery props (tables, thrones, etc) to show which room it was. We don't have a curtain, so Set Changes had to be really easy. We had tables and chairs, covered in books for Fred's studying room and changing room, the bed for Fred's sleeping chambers (and lighting just on that area so that it wasn't the entire stage) trees to show outside and Thrones for the main room. We also had a couple of decorative things to show the different sets (Pictures, etc) including a mounted Dragon's head for the Wizard's chambers.

[musikal_geek]

[Set_Buildin_Dad]

We used a couple of large flats that were painted to look like the castle wall and hid a large portion of the set prior to the opening curtain. These flats were then used when we wanted to change the settings to rooms. When placed downstage they worked well to create a feeling of a more intimate setting. I'll see if I can post some photos of how this worked when I get home tonight.

[star2ballie]

Awesome set, Set_Buildin_Dad! I love it.

Ours was a bit more 'simple' in the respect that we didn't have tons of large pieces...we put these white diamod shaped sticker things on the floor...it looked cool. We also had big, triangular shaped pillar things (I forgot the name for them...tri...somethings...haha) that had different designs and would be flipped to create a different location. We had furniture, etc. in Fred's bedroom and stuff...and we had flags hung above.

Here's an awful picture during dress rehearsal one night. The back square thing wasn't painted yet.



Here's the bed...being torn apart...haha.



And at the end, as we sang the last chord, one of the "blankets" unfurled and this banner came down.



Crappy pictures...sorry...haha. I haven't gotten my CD from the photog yet.

[musikal_geek]

^Like, one of the blankets on the bed? I don't really get it...

[star2ballie]

Okay like... the bed was just a normal bed, right? Like, okay the lines stand for a layer on the bed.

___
___
___
___
___

etc. etc. etc.

On top of the top layer, there was the banner, rolled up and tied with a piece of string. At the end, Fred was on the bed, and pulled the string so the blanket (which was really the banner) unfurled down the side of the bed.

Get it? Kinda? It was a cute touch.

[i'm_back]

our set is probably going to be awesome, but it is making me so mad!

In the downstage left and right corners there are these two huge "tourits" (like big fat spiral staircases) they take up so much space! We haven't rehearsed with them yet, but whenever we're doing blocking or choreography, the directors will be like "you're standing in a tourit." ugh!

But, i'm sure it'll all work out, and look great!

[musikal_geek]

Oh, I get it now, Allie! Cool!

[Set_Buildin_Dad]