Actually, I’m not currently doing anything in the theater, but that’s just because the play I was working on closed last Sunday. I’ve worked as crew for a couple of professional plays, in college, done lights, sound, set, etc. So, what’s been bugging you about how something happened at a play you saw, or any other things I might be able to answer?
Ever killed a guy?
Oh, wait, that’s from the “Ask the cop” thread.
So… ever had one of those stage trapdoors open at the wrong time and send an actor plunging to his death?
Ever worked the Rocky Horror Show? And what was it like?
Ever pulled closing night pranks on those poor, cluless actors?
And more seriously, how can I be you? I did theater in high school, and absolutely loved it, but after I graduated that pesky “life” stuff got in the way. How can I become a techie?
A few months ago, a touring company of The Scarlet Pimpernel stoped at my universtiy. Being a smaller university, they had to scale down the production to the bare essentials, but the sets were still most impressive. I sang a concert in that auditorium later on this year, and discovered that the stage has absolutely no wings whatsoever. Where the hell did they keep the sets? There was one that just looked to huge to put, well, anywhere. I suppose they could have hoisted it into the fly, but it looked way too heavy for that (the drops aren’t motorized at all). Where the heck did they keep it?
Bryan Ekers: Well, actually…
No, no plungeing-to-death, but there was a problem
fireplace at one time. This fireplace rose up through a trap door on an elevator, not as an
effect, just as a place to store it when it wasn’t in the current scene. Once it’s fully
raised, pneumatic brakes are engaged to make absolutly sure it doesn’t fall during a scene.
Well, one night, as it was being lowered after its last appearance, when it had moved about
6 inches or so down, the brakes engaged! We couldn’t fix it then, so the actors just had to
walk around it and pretend it wasn’t there.
Troy McClure SF: Nope, no Rocky Horror Show, sorry.
Pranks: yep we sure did 
At one point in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (not the musical),
Hyde is eating from a tray of food. One of the items is a smallish pickle, so he always
said “a wee pickle!” when he ‘discovered’ it each night. The last night, we got a pickle
about a foot long. Although we told him his pickle would be a bit bigger than usual (had
to, it’s the rules), he was shocked when he saw it. In fact, I believe his exact words were
“The biggest pickle in all of England!”, while holding it reverently above his head.
BellaVoce: Sorry, I really can’t give you specifics, since I haven’t seen the show,
but set designers can be very ingenious, so they may have made the various scenes in pieces
that could be carried on separately, and stored in the halls. In the most recent play I
worked on, The Blue Room, there were ten scenes, and ten completely different sets,
so the crew was on stage probably as much as the actors! They measure dimensions very
carefully, so we had maybe an inch or less of clearance for some set pieces (it was a 3/4
stage, with audience on three sides of the stage, so the crew had to bring stuff on and off
through the aisles).
Actually, now that I reread your post, the lines aren’t always motorized (they weren’t at my
last job, Cleveland Play House). As long as it’s properly counterweighted, it’s not that
hard to fly stuff in and out, if there’s enough space abouve for the piece to get all the
way out.
Arrg, that’s what I get for typing out my answer in Notepad and copy-and-pasting it into IE.