I haven’t done this particular show, but this spring, we did “Jesus Christ Superstar.” For Judas’s suicide, we had some cotton material twisted tightly and then one of our three Eagle Scouts tied a slip knot. Judas “finds” the noose while she’s on a tall platform while there is a projection of a tree on the cyc. She puts the noose on, pulls the knot in (but leaving a good amount of slack). One of our sneaky stagehands opened the “gate” we made in the safety rail. She holds the end of the noose in her hand, raises her arm straight up, and steps off the platform onto foam padding behind the stage. In the moment that she hits the stage, the band played the final note of the moment (they were within her sight line back there, so they could time it right) and the cyc went to black.
I wanted to make it very clear to the audience that there was no chance that she could actually get hurt. I didn’t want to take them out of such a heart-wrenching moment by thinking “I wonder if Maddy’s okay?”
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We did like another poster said: Had the actor stand on a chair and then put the noose around her neck. She stood there as Wargrave went offstage. She was back and top lit, no front or side light. The gunshot goes and she drops the figure in silhouette.
The key safety factor is in the noose knot design. Here is a short description of how we made a SAFE noose for theatre use:
We made our noose using 1" (or 1 1/4") diameter hemp rope. I tied a real noose. Then I put epoxy on the knot - you do not want any on the rope that slides through as it still needs to move freely. Epoxy the heck out of the knot, every turn. The final goal of the epoxy is that the knot should remain whole, even if the rest of the rope is cutaway (which is the next step).
Next, look at the loop of rope (the part that goes around the neck). You want the cut the side that is solid (not the side that slides through the knot). If you did a good job with the epoxy, the know will be solid and stay in place. Gaff tape the end of the rope you just cut. Now, you should be able to slip it back inside the knot and the tension of the knot will hold it in place. It will look 100% real. But if the actor puts any tension on the loop itself (falls off the chair, gets the loop too tight) the cut end of the loop will slip out of the knot and just fall away.
If you need more detail, PM me and I would be happy to help.
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Jeremy Riggs
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