We are staging HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME this winter, however we are doing it in a small space using environmental staging, not dissimilar from how GREAT COMET looked when it was still in it's off-Broadway spaces. There will be audience no more than a few feet from an actor at any given moment. Our concept is that the audience, when going downstairs into the performance space, is actually decending into the Court of Miracles and gypsies are re-creating the story, assuming the role of the Congregation.
Given this unique space, I have a couple of questions how folks have handled things in the past so I can brainstorm how to adapt them to our needs:
*How have people done the "magic disappearing smoke" that Clopin and Esmeralda use?
*How have people staged throwing the tomatoes, etc. at Quasi during the Feast of Fools?
*How have people staged Quasi throwing the man at the Feast of Fools and Clopin at the end? Did you do this literally, or just suggesting it? I have pretty much no space for any major stage combat.
*Have you found a minimum number of voices in the choir that works best? How important is it to have equal SATB representation? (My MD says that the A & T parts double most of the score).
*Any other advice?
Thanks,
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Jason Coats
Overland Park, KS
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