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  • 1.  Making flowers appear on stage

    Posted 02-07-2016 10:17
    I am working on Cinderella and the fairy godmother is supposed to "magically" make flowers appear in a vase.  Has anyone done a trick like this?  Any tips on how to make it happen on our stage?  I'm sure there's a way to rig it, I just don't know what it is!!


  • 2.  RE: Making flowers appear on stage

    Posted 02-08-2016 12:16

    We put a student under a table. The table had a hole drilled through, and the wire of the flowers was pushed up through the hole in the table and vase. You can do the same with a window sill and someone feeding them from behind the set.

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    Zachary Schneider
    Casper WY

    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Making flowers appear on stage

    Posted 02-08-2016 12:26

    We placed the flower vase on the mantle above the fireplace rather than the table that R & H's libretto calls for.

    The vase was hot glued to the mantle and they both had holes drilled into them.

    We used flowers from a magic shop (the type that appear out of one end of the magician's wand) and pushed them up on cue from back stage.

    Hope that this helps!

    Have a great show! 

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    Kevin Hayes
    [Director of Theatre]
    [Maumee Valley Country Day School]
    [Toledo] [OH]
    [khayes@mvcds.org]

    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Making flowers appear on stage

    Posted 02-09-2016 08:49

    We were able to use a magic flower basket from a magic shop. The framework of the basket folded the flowers into it and when she tapped it with her wand the frame sprung open and revealed the flowers. We masked the wire basket to fit in with the style of the set.

    Tamara Plasterer
    Director of Vocal Music & Theatre - Department Chair /Fine Arts
    Padua Franciscan High School
    tplasterer@paduafranciscan.com
    P 440.845.2444 x145
    F 440.845.5710
    6740 State Road Parma, OH 44134
                   

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  • 5.  RE: Making flowers appear on stage

    Posted 02-08-2016 12:48

    There are several "magic props" designed to do this, so your best bet would be to talk with a magic shop and see what they have.

    However... the other side of the coin is that not all magic dealers are familiar with magic as used to support a story instead of being the story. Their job is to sell magic tricks, so they may want to sell you a prop that doesn't work in the context of the story, or with the Fairy Godmother's character. There's a huge difference between a stage magician and a character like Harry Potter, and you don't want to pull the audience away from the story by having a "really magical" character come across like she's doing a "magic trick."

    I have a long background in stage magic, but, every time a question like this comes up, I try to steer the production away from "magic tricks" and into theatrical techniques. So I really like the two suggestions above: they're relatively simple and keep the focus on the character.  :-)

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    George F. Ledo
    Set designer
    www.setdesignandtech.wordpress.com
    www.georgefledo.net

    Original Message