Open Forum

 View Only
Back to discussions
Expand all | Collapse all

Tornado ideas for Oz?

  • 1.  Tornado ideas for Oz?

    Posted 01-20-2018 18:27
    I have an extremely small stage and budget but I'm looking to make as epic a tornado scene as possible. Anyone have ideas of ways you've done tornado or other similar storm scenes? We don't have projection capabilities. 
    --
    Lisa Singleterry
    Portland Christian Schools
    Elementary Music & Band Teacher
    High School Drama Director
    Masters of Arts in Teaching


  • 2.  RE: Tornado ideas for Oz?

    Posted 01-21-2018 08:21
    I saw a great idea for the tornado. It was light blue fabric hanging from the rigging/batten and a person in a matching morph suit spinning it. It looked great!

    Sent from my iPad


    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Tornado ideas for Oz?

    Posted 01-21-2018 10:19
    Hello.

    I agree. Fabric and dancers work very well. Also, dancers could do it without flying fabric if you have no way to fly the fabric.

    Break a leg and have an awesome tornado!

    ------------------------------
    Donnie Bryan
    Department Chair for Visual and Performing Arts
    Nashville TN
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Tornado ideas for Oz?

    Posted 01-21-2018 11:51
    In our recent production of Mulan, Jr., we used blue and white lights swirling against the cyc for the avalanche scene. We also shook the cyc and had dancers who spun around the stage with long swirling white ribbons. Meanwhile the huns were flailing upstage on stage boxes and falling back into the abyss as the avalanche progressed. Of course, we had avalanche music/sound as well. It was an inexpensive fix that was quite effective. 
    I believe you could do something similar, but use a rotating pattern for tornado. For extra effect, you could have crew holding chairs or other items and circling with and within the rotating dancers/performers/crew.
    --
    Joni McLeod, drama teacher
    Cario Middle School
    Mt. Pleasant, SC 



    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Tornado ideas for Oz?

    Posted 01-21-2018 12:15
    We had dancers create most of the twister when we did OZ. Then we built a chicken wire frame, stuffed it with some grey sheer fabric, put a cow toy on it, and spun it around on the base of a broken office chair. Some dim and flashing lights, some spinning arms with 'wind' attached, and boom- we're in OZ. I also trimmed how long that music piece was.

    --
    Hillary Bogers
    Theatre Director
    Jack Britt High School
    910-429-2800


    This e-mail is for the sole use of the individual for whom it is intended. If you are neither the intended recipient, nor agent responsible for delivering this e-mail to the intended recipient, any disclosure, re-transmission, copying, or reliance on the information contained herein is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the person transmitting the correspondence immediately. All e-mail correspondence to and from this email may be subject to disclosure to any third party upon request, including the media. It shall not be necessary to disclose: 1) E-mail correspondence which does not constitute a Public Record as defined under N.C.G.S. §132.1 or; 2) a public record which is exempt from disclosure under other applicable State or Federal law.



    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Tornado ideas for Oz?

    Posted 01-21-2018 13:38
    I agree with everyone about the fabric. I think you could also make it in an audience experience too with some larger fans and have them blowing out over the audience to enhance their experience and feel the wind. It would be simple enough to get two box fans, one for either side of the stage and point them out towards the audience at that moment.  Sound effects also can play a key role in this. Really get those wind sounds going, and play with the bass a little if you can do let the audience feel it. 

    Strobe lights on a medium or so setting can also just play with the audiences perception a bit.

    ------------------------------
    Dan Mellitz
    Technical Director
    St Andrews School
    Barrington, RI
    Www.techiegreenroom.com
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Tornado ideas for Oz?

    Posted 01-21-2018 13:40
    When we did a few years back, we happened to have a student was really good at creating computer graphics and such, we used lighting to create a dim look and projected a video he created.  We also created a video of the wizard head to project for the scenes in the Emerald City, too.  But it cost us nothing and was quite effective. 



    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: Tornado ideas for Oz?

    Posted 01-22-2018 07:24
    It's kind of out there, but could you wrap a dancer in gray gauze and have them whirl around with small trailing pieces of gauze? Or if you have a fly system, hook some up and swish it back and forth? With the right sound effects, it could work.

    ------------------------------
    Kati Heintzman
    Thespian Advisor
    Middletown City Schools
    Middletown OH
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: Tornado ideas for Oz?

    Posted 01-22-2018 07:30
    Does your school have a Color Guard? We used them for our tornado with great success. Small house structure on a rotating base, and them moving around that structure with flags.

    ------------------------------
    Amber Perkins
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 10.  RE: Tornado ideas for Oz?

    Posted 01-22-2018 12:52
    We used dancers in leotards with strips of gray, black, and white lightweight fabric.  I also had some folks with gray bamboo rods and fishing line twirling a cow, rowboat, and miniature house over the aisles of the audience.  Add some flashy, flashy and it was effective.

    ------------------------------
    [William] [Myatt] [Director of Theatre]

    [Pleasant Valley High School]

    [myattw@pleasval.k12.ia.us][563-332-5151][Bettendorf][IA][USA]
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 11.  RE: Tornado ideas for Oz?

    Posted 01-22-2018 15:58
    We created a shadow puppet effect by drawing a scrim and backlighting it, placing stick puppets of the tornado, the house, the bicycle with the librarian on it, and anything else creative students wanted to add. To further the effect, we had techies in the balcony shooting off squirt guns!  The audience loved it! We also turned on industrial fans to blow into the house!

    --

    "The mission of The Sharon Academy is to nurture intelligent, independent, and creative thinking in a small school community, awakening students to their immense potential and the difference they can make in the world." 




    Original Message


  • 12.  RE: Tornado ideas for Oz?

    Posted 01-25-2018 10:22
    Our tornado started with the mid-closed and Em, Henry, etc running around on stage in a low greenish light with some strobe. We borrowed the big floor-drying fans from the janitors to blow the curtains and set some on the edge of the stage to blow their costumes. They all escaped into the door, Dorothy ran on, tried the door, then got on the porch and the porch took off.

    We had seven students in gray morph suits and built a little porch on wheels with sturdy columns holding up a flat roof. The tornado students spun the porch with Dorothy and Toto on it with low black light and a slow strobe. The midcurtain opened and the people in morph suits spun banners at the start (I understand you have no battens) but then Dorothy stepped through the door and off the porch and the mid went down in front of the battens (so we could set Munchkinland) and they parked the porch for and then two of the kids in suits brought in her bed, which they spun with her on it while she remarked at silhouette puppets she brought across (old lady in rocker, boat, Gulch). The whole thing was about 1.5 minutes, not the NINE music was provided for, and it let us open to Munchkinland without a long blackout. 

    This is a still from an opportune moment when the strobe was lit.

    Wizard of Oz Tornado Still
    I wish I could send you video but it's on my phone and too big to send via Wifi. I hope this helps even just a little. The key is that low light and strobe.

    ------------------------------
    Amy Strickland
    Drama Teacher
    AL
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


Related Content