Theatre help ASAP NOW! Please!?

Question:Our theatre production needs ideas. What we need...we were told that our theatre production of the "Crucible," would be better if our scene changes were more theatrical. Right now what we have is the lights cut out we change the scene and the lights come back up. What can we do to make our scene changes interesting that could portray the crucible or our characters? Any ideas? Please it would mean the world. We are a 1A school so materials are limited. We have sound and lights we can work with. What can we put together that is fast relatively 5-10 seconds?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Our theatre production needs ideas. What we need...we were told that our theatre production of the "Crucible," would be better if our scene changes were more theatrical. Right now what we have is the lights cut out we change the scene and the lights come back up. What can we do to make our scene changes interesting that could portray the crucible or our characters? Any ideas? Please it would mean the world. We are a 1A school so materials are limited. We have sound and lights we can work with. What can we put together that is fast relatively 5-10 seconds?

It's all about the lighting and music. For a show like The Crucible, I don't really like having the characters do the set changes in view of the audience.

The changes themselves should be choreographed as carefully as the blocking in the show. Quick and efficient (but controlled) is the key in order to not break the mood. Each person knows exactly what they are carrying in what order, and does it the same every performance.

I would say find a moody and interesting instrumental (a flute? a drumbeat? a violin? that evokes the mood of the show, and play it during each change. I would do slow fades to black instead of abrupt blackouts. Perhaps you could have a key light that stays on a symbolic set piece, while everything else fades to black.

Music does wonders.

Instead of going to blackout, go down to blues, and have the actors do the scene changes - choreographed and suitable to character. Have specific characters strike pieces that suit them character-wise. Don't try to do it in five seconds. Give it at least 30 seconds or a minute each - make it part of the play. Weave the crosses with the set pieces in and out of each other. Could be neat.

Option - Rather than going down to blues, take out all the front light and go to a single lone sidelight, nice and dim, like twilight coming onstage from off, with lots of stuff in the way (people and set pieces) that will produce a lot of shadows. The light coming from the side will produce some neat shadows and really look moody and filtered. LOL - Good call. This is a better idea than the blues!

What you described sounds typical and fine expecially for the Crucible, who's telling you to change it? My suggestions would be... Do you have music for your scene changes? Maybe moody lighting? The characters can stand on stage as the change takes place or walk across the stage to their marks (for the next scene?) to counter your set pieces making it look like a smoothly choreographed scene change. Your crew should all be in costume or in all black. If they change things with any lighting, costumes are preferable.

best of luck to you all! Break a leg!!
Marianne

In high school (in a small town in Iowa no less), we did a controversial play, "The Children's Hour" by Lillian Hellman -- it was a movie with James Garner, Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine, and was about teachers at an all-girls boarding school, and the students in the school told a lie that 2 of their female teachers were lesbians. It was so controversial (one fundamentalist actor's mom almost pulled her from the play) that we only performed it one night.

Anyhow, all the actors did all the various scene changes. We choreographed the scene changes, and everyone had a very specific job to move things from here to there. It was not a complete black-out, so the audience could see what we were doing. There may have been some interstitial music, and our scene changes were rehearsed and timed to the music, or the music would fade when we were done or close to done and ready to start the next scene. My mom enjoyed watching all the actors change our own sets, and she enjoyed watching our camaraderie and teamwork, working together as a team to make this all happen. I would not say our scene changes happened in 5-10 seconds, but they did take a few minutes, and all our scene changes were rehearsed, just as the rest of the play was rehearsed. If you added some kind of music, from what I know of the "Crucible," it would probably need to be spooky or scary or sad type of music. I think the "Crucible" also has a theme of unrequited forbidden love, does it not? So maybe music that is poignant as well?
Good luck, and let me know how it goes.

"The Crucuble" is an Arthur Miller Play and is supposed to be done with little or no scenery.
I hope this helps.