42nd Street with No Sets... Suggestions.
42nd Street with No Sets... Suggestions.
#142nd Street with No Sets... Suggestions.
Posted: 7/20/11 at 1:12pm
Hey everyone, I need some suggestions on how to effectively stage a production of 42nd street with no sets or backdrops. We have no budget or labor for sets and only conventional lighting.
I will however have props, (including the dimes and large quarter) and some furniture pieces. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks!
#242nd Street with No Sets... Suggestions.
Posted: 7/20/11 at 1:16pmSet it in Purgatory. Everyone has died from hunger, tuberculosis, or syphilis. Those who tap fastest get to go on to paradise. Adds a layer of desperation.
#242nd Street with No Sets... Suggestions.
Posted: 7/20/11 at 1:28pm
Can you define "conventional lighting"?
#342nd Street with No Sets... Suggestions.
Posted: 7/20/11 at 1:29pmclick on. click off.
JohnBoy2
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/21/06
#542nd Street with No Sets... Suggestions.
Posted: 7/20/11 at 3:16pmBring out the stage manager and set it in Grovers Corners.
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#642nd Street with No Sets... Suggestions.
Posted: 7/20/11 at 3:45pm
Have you considered NOISES OFF?
dramamama611
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/07
#742nd Street with No Sets... Suggestions.
Posted: 7/20/11 at 4:57pm
1. I promise I'm not being snarky.
2. If you don't have a budget for a set, then, don't use backdrops, flats, etc. I'm not really sure what kind of help you are hoping we could give you.
3. Furniture IS part of the set. So you do have some.
4. If the acting, dancing and singing are good enough, then don't worry.
vegas2
Featured Actor Joined: 12/5/09
#842nd Street with No Sets... Suggestions.
Posted: 7/20/11 at 5:03pmLast summer I saw a decent production of 42d Street at the Chichester Festival just outside of London. If I recall correctly, they used a thrust stage, no curtain, and the set was minimal. However, they did have a huge trap door that enabled the dancers to have some dramatic entrances rising out of the stage floor. You might get some helpful advice from the folks who mounted that production.
#942nd Street with No Sets... Suggestions.
Posted: 7/20/11 at 8:18pmY'know, I did a book on this very thing -- seriously: BIG SHOW TINY BUDGET. But even it has to start from the position that you have *something* to work with. What are you doing with costuming? Renting? Improvising?
#1042nd Street with No Sets... Suggestions.
Posted: 7/20/11 at 8:21pm
Get an old movie projector and show black&white footage behind the actors. Have two people, fully viosable, working the projectors. Make it a tribute to old time movies.
or
Make a wall of whiteboards and have someone literally dray the scenery with erasable markers and line drawings in the bg.
or
Use an old-time slide projector with period photos you can get from onlne and turn into slides.
or
See if anone has access to a widescreen TV projector (lots of people used to have them in their basements) and then make a mixtape of footage from New York in the 30s. (The Prelinger Collection has TONS of royalty free stuff downloadable in high resolution.
#1142nd Street with No Sets... Suggestions.
Posted: 7/20/11 at 8:28pm
Projections would work if the lighting could be controlled, but i sounds like they have two overhead strips and three pre-sets.
And the problem with the marker idea is that it wont read from any distance. In a small space, sure. But anything larger than a high school auditorium, and the OP is SOL.
#1242nd Street with No Sets... Suggestions.
Posted: 7/20/11 at 11:17pmIf there's no budget, then what will their costumes look like?? T-shirts & dockers and have them spray painted with glitter for "Money" & the Ballet?
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