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  • 1.  Annie Set help

    Posted 12-07-2018 07:32
    Hello there, we are about to start casting Annie Jr and it looks like we will have 10 additional orphans along with the 7 principals but I am getting hung up on how to stage bedding for all these kids.  Any ideas?
    thank you!

    --
    Brian Brightman


  • 2.  RE: Annie Set help

    Posted 12-07-2018 11:19
    Edited by George Ledo 12-07-2018 12:21
    The bedding as such wants to be part of your overall set design concept and how the other locales are designed. As a set designer, in cases like this, I make it part of my initial talk with the director: do we want one bed for each kid, is there room on or off stage for them, is there money for all those beds, how "literal" do we want to be, do we really want beds or just the suggestion of them, and so on. It's all just part of the conceptualization process before we even get into the set design. Here is where the choreographer can get involved and be a huge creative help: what does he or she envision for that scene?

    A quick answer, sight unseen... depending on the size of the stage and your resources, your orphanage may require more than one "bedroom," meaning that some of the beds may be "next door" and you never see them.

    Hope that helps.

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    George F. Ledo
    Set designer
    www.setdesignandtech.wordpress.com
    www.georgefledo.net
    http://astore.amazon.com/sdtbookstore-20
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Annie Set help

    Posted 12-09-2018 15:36
    Edited by Kristin Hall 12-09-2018 15:49

    We put 2 in each bed - saving stage space, and giving the feel of an overcrowded orphanage.  (We had a group of 12ish for Maybe, plus Annie, then had lots more for Hard Knock Life, and had them come in as if from next door.)  We made 6 sturdy beds, because we wanted the orphans to be able to stand on them and dance.  We used plywood, and kept the beds to 2' wide and 6' long, plus legs from the same sheet of plywood.  I'm pretty sure we used 3/4" ply.  They have now been used in two productions of Annie, plus (just one or two at a time) in countless other shows.  

    They were not fancy, but add a few orphans and blankets, and suddenly lack of any kind of bed frame doesn't seem to matter quite as much. (And we are middle school, so not a big budget operation.)

      
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    Kristin Hall
    Drama Director
    Lincoln Public Schools
    Arlington MA
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Annie Set help

    Posted 12-08-2018 08:34
    I've done both Annie and Annie JR ... for the high school production we used 6 stage boxes with handles cut in them for easy movement in and off stage. They were at two different heights and we alternated them across the backdrop... for bedding we made small mattresses covered with fake ticking, I told old hospital blankets and dyed them green and cut them in smaller pieces, same with some old sheets. I dad some kids sleeping two to a box, others cuddled on the floor in front of boxes ... we staged Annie Jr similarly but didn't use the tallest boxes ... I liked having something sturdy as "beds" because they could be used for standing on/ jumping off and since then I've reused them many times. I'm attaching a few pics but they are pretty close up so it's hard to get the full scope of things ...

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    Toni Thomas
    English Teacher, Theatre Director
    West Branch MI
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Annie Set help

    Posted 12-10-2018 07:05
      |   view attached
    We perform on the cafeteria floor (no stage) and the audience is in bleachers.  Here's a photo.  It was simple, but worked well.

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    Janet Cain
    Cincinnati OH
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    Original Message


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