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  • 1.  The Wizard of Oz - all ideas welcome!

    Posted 11-05-2014 09:54
    This message has been cross posted to the following Discussions: Prop, Costume and Set Sharing MEMBERS ONLY and Open Forum .
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    Hello!

    We have selected The Wizard of Oz for our spring musical and I am in need of ideas and suggestions.  Our proscenium is too small to fly characters or set pieces. A witch flying four feet off the ground just wouldn't be that impressive! 

    I have a wonderful crew of supportive tech folks, but none of us have had real training, so we are often the blind leading the blind when it comes to spectacle and special effects.

    We are renting some adorable costumes and plan to have a bunch of little munchkins so we have that going for us...now I want to make sure that we give our audience a traditional WoO without a flying witch! 

    I'm sure many of you have produced this show and can give me insight...I will be truly appreciative of any advice you can share!

    Happy November!!!
    Carolyn




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    Carolyn Greer
    Owensboro KY
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  • 2.  RE: The Wizard of Oz - all ideas welcome!

    Posted 11-05-2014 11:36
    Hey Carolyn,

    We did this show a couple of years ago with no flying witch when we were in Munchkin land we had a trap door built into the set piece that we used smoke and lights and about four stage hands underneath to lift and lower her. and in the castle we had a trap door with a ladder so when she melted she lust went down the ladder slowly.

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    Alan Kay
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  • 3.  RE: The Wizard of Oz - all ideas welcome!

    Posted 11-06-2014 08:15
    Not sure if this would help you, but we're doing Wonka in the spring with a live feed for the flying/bubble scene. Actors will play it lying on the ground. I saw a great Wizard make use of material hanging from batons and actors onstage jiggling the grey material to represent the tornado. ------------------------------------------- Stacie McKiernan Bozeman MT -------------------------------------------
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  • 4.  RE: The Wizard of Oz - all ideas welcome!

    Posted 11-06-2014 08:35
    Carolyn- We used projections/film to do the entrance of Glinda and the conversations with Oz. I can probably send you a copy of what we came up with. I don't know if you have video production at your school. They have been a God send to us for these situations. LH ------------------------------------------- Lisa Houston Pennington NJ -------------------------------------------
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  • 5.  RE: The Wizard of Oz - all ideas welcome!

    Posted 09-15-2017 11:23
    Are your projections still available?

    Andrea

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    Andrea Gustafson
    Morris IL
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: The Wizard of Oz - all ideas welcome!

    Posted 11-06-2014 13:25
    Something I think is often really fun-- is to be minimalist and focus on one or two production elements.  For the Wizard of Oz, for example, we focused on costuming and sound alone-- working with the actors to produce amazing body work.  Just a thought.  Sometimes, I think there is nothing better than seeing and actor melt on stage-- shrinking into the floor, facial expressions and voice work going-- that can be sooo cool!

    One think we did do, though, was to use an old overhead projector and some lighting gel to produce the images in the ball-- which for our production was just a corner of a the castle cell.

    Best of luck with your production, whatever approach you decide to take.

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    Michael Johnson
    Trinity NC
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: The Wizard of Oz - all ideas welcome!

    Posted 11-06-2014 13:33
    Hi Carolyn.  We didn't have the necessary fly space or budget to fly anyone, but we had some pretty cool effects.
    1.  My students designed and painted a sepia toned, cotton scrim backdrop of Kansas wheatfields, with a barn, windmill, and picket fence along a road.  We used very watered down paint so we wouldn't fill the pores of the scrim.
    2.  This drop was hung midstage on a side pull traveller track, and used in the opening and end of the show.  We also had a small-ish house/porch wagon of the Gale house that had an exterior on 1 side, the interior of the house on the other side.   Stagehands dressed as tornados and storm clouds turned the house as the storm raged, and Dorothy had lines.
    3.  We had a unit set of Oz platforms just upstage of the Kansas drop, and the people in the storm appeared in different pools of light, behind the scrim, during the storm.  Since they were higher in the air, on the platforms, they gave the illusion of being in the air.
    4.  At the end of the storm, BO, the traveller w/ the KS drop opened, and there was an explosion of color in painted Oz wagons and a backdrop.

    If you would like, I could hunt down some pics, and send them to you as attachments.  Just send me an email address if you would like the pics.

    Have fun doing the show!  It was really a blast to do!

    Bob

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    Robert Fowler
    Co-Developer
    Interactive Educational Video, LLC
    Chesterfield MO
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    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: The Wizard of Oz - all ideas welcome!

    Posted 11-06-2014 20:41
    This was my first show as a Theatre teacher/troupe sponsor, and it was a huge learning experience from start to finish! Good call on getting little Munchkins; everyone will be ooooohing and aaaaaahing over them to notice the no flying witch. Like others, we used video projection, as well as the cool thing for our theatre set up was that the sound booth was high above the audience, and visible if audience look up. We had the witch do her 'surrender Dorothy' bit from up there, with some unauthorized mugging, but the audience loved it. For the witch melting, we really milked the 'we really have no special effects budget' angle, so our witch 'melted' into the floor and then over-dramatically rolled under the curtain, with no attempt to really hide the 'effect'. What did work really well was because of the many scene changes, we had our jitterbugs be the scenery movers/stage hands: this kept the pace of The play from flagging as they mugged and did some cute stuff in between scenes. My favorite touch was the huge rock that was carried onstage by two of the jitterbugs for the Winkie/outside the castle scene; after everyone marched off stage, the rock was left onstage for a minute, before the rock walked itself off stage by itself (actor hidden inside). Goofy, but made what I personally feel is kinda a 'meh' sort of musicaluchore engaging and fun. ------------------------------------------- Phillip Goodchild Valrico FL -------------------------------------------
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  • 9.  RE: The Wizard of Oz - all ideas welcome!

    Posted 11-07-2014 11:59
    I just remembered a couple other things that worked really well for us, Carolyn.  

    We dressed 2 of the dancers in yellow costumes with stones painted on them, and they were the Yellow Brick Road.  Dorothy and the other characters "followed" them to different areas of the stage.

    The Wizard, before being discovered, was video of the school principal's face, synched to the actor's voice.  This was projected on the cyc, and was a big hit.  When we shot the footage, he was dressed all in black, against black curtains, so only his face appeared, far upstage, 20' tall, amidst fog, strobes, and other special effects.  It was also great for building PR and school buzz. 

    Last, we bought the materials, and had the Metals class build the Tin Woodsman's costume.  Another bit of buzz around the school, and it looked great.

    Bob
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    Robert Fowler
    Co-Developer
    Interactive Educational Video, LLC
    Chesterfield MO
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    Original Message


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