Actors as scenery?

[aces25]

Posted: 3/9/12 at 7:48pm

Anyone know of any shows / specific productions where actors are used as scenery? What was created and how?

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 3/9/12 at 9:31pm

MACBETH shall never vanquish'd be until
Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill
Shall come against him.

But perhaps that's more an instance of actors as characters masquerading as scenery.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 3/9/12 at 9:50pm

The Mute, as The Wall in practically every production of The Fantastiks.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 3/9/12 at 9:54pm

I'm not sure what you are asking. Harold Prince was famous for using actors on stage throughout his musicals, but they were usually playing people (or ghosts in FOLLIES), not literally walls and furniture. It gave his work a look of Realism that was unusual for musicals in the 60s and 70s. (And it may have originated with Robbins or somebody. I could be giving Prince credit for something he didn't invent, but merely used a lot.)

The tradition of musical theater characters having extensive meetings where they are all alone in a public place (some stagings of "If I Loved You" for example) was always rather artificial.

As for using actors to actually play furniture and set pieces, I know Fosse did some of that in PIPPIN and maybe even CHICAGO, but I don't know if I'd call that his "style". A lot of the shows (PIPPIN, GODSPELL, others) that were influenced by college productions that were in turn influenced by improv exercises (and I don't mean the GROUNDLINGS) did things where bodies came to represent inanimate objects. Call it the "hippy" influence.

[showchoirguy]

Posted: 3/9/12 at 9:54pm

Sunday in the Park would be a great example! Using people to recreate the painting.

[justoldbill]

Posted: 3/9/12 at 10:31pm

Ever hear of opera supernumeraries?

[SNAFU]

Posted: 3/9/12 at 11:13pm

The Irish Rep's production of The Emperor Jones, used the ensemble as trees.

[3bluenight]

Posted: 3/10/12 at 12:54am

Ramon Delgado's The Little Toy Dog, is a very short one act that is written with the chorus or ensemble used in this way. They are the trees in the forest and as the male and female lead stroll through the forest, they comment. they create the wind etc.

The male lead goes to university, off to war, into the work place, and in each the chorus creates the environment, as walls, chairs, blackboards. sometimes they are soldiers, other times they're inanimate.

[TimesSquareRegular]

Posted: 3/10/12 at 8:44am

..... and then, of course, we have scenery as actors, as in Phantom's "Masquerade" number.

[best12bars]

Posted: 3/10/12 at 8:52am

The original staging of "The Robber Bridegroom" used the ensemble actors as scenery, animals, etc. Most of them stayed on stage for the entire show.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 3/10/12 at 10:51am

A MIdsummer Night's Dream (Pyramus and Thisbe) the wall

[NJBway]

Posted: 3/10/12 at 11:13am

I just did The Odyssey translation by Richard Fitzgerald we'd use people to become ships & planks of wood, and people as animals ie. sheep and wolves and lions it was really fun to use people instead of set pieces & worked with the show's dance background that we incorporated

[CurtainCall]

Posted: 3/10/12 at 11:19am

In THE VISIT (the original play) the men play the forest (and some of its inhabitants).

[xxdrewboy85xx]

Posted: 3/10/12 at 3:23pm

This summer's production of Into the Woods at the Delacorte.

[Frank thebellhop]

Posted: 3/10/12 at 3:52pm

Jon Both's adaptation of Pride and Prejudice uses actors as gates, shrubs, ect. Also, while offstage characters are spoken about on stage they are revealed through sliding panels or forming tablues (sp?)

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 3/10/12 at 5:18pm

In English, tableaus (or in French, tableaux, I believe).

Only because you asked. Not trying to be snarky.

(ETA looked it up: the British use the French spelling, tableaux, and that is technically correct in American English as well; but in the U.S., tableaus is more common.)
Updated On: 3/10/12 at 05:18 PM

[E.Davis]

Posted: 3/10/12 at 5:24pm

In my University's upcoming production of "CABARET", a lot of the Kit Kat Girls will be present in most scenes as on lookers. Using them as set decoration.

[beaemma]

Posted: 3/10/12 at 6:33pm

NICHOLAS NICKLEBY attempted to represent everything in the book onstage, including descriptive passages. I especially recall a description of a row of houses which were represented by actors standing in a row.

[Jon]

Posted: 3/10/12 at 7:53pm

Isn't there a scene in LION KING where a field of grass actually turns out to be head-dresses worn by the ensemble?

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 3/10/12 at 8:00pm

I saw a production of Once on This Island where ensemble members played the tree. It was kind of lame. They just stood there and held branches while little Ti Moune sat on one of their shoulders.

[Vespertine1228]

Posted: 3/11/12 at 12:02pm

Not sure if anyone saw Stop the Virgens, the rock opera by Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer Karen O when it was at St. Ann's Warehouse last year. When you went into the theatre you had to walk through a giant tunnel created by the 40 plus young female ensemble. It was pretty incredible.

They were also used for other scenic pieces throughout the show.

[Jon]

Posted: 3/11/12 at 1:35pm

I'm pretty sure the script of OOTI indicates that the tree is supposed to be played by one or two actors, with Little Ti Moune on their shoulders.

[watchmesoar]

Posted: 3/11/12 at 4:53pm

Lion King: during a few scenes, the Ensemble is used as scenery: "Can you feel the love tonight" and the already mentioned scene...