Musicals can often take a bit longer to plan than straight
plays and our summer musicals were no exception.
In the summer of 1985 we were to do Peter Pan and sometime
during the school year I went with the rest of the production team to see a
local production of the play and get a backstage tour after the show.
The producers wanted to make sure that the flying was safe
and that it was an expense and challenge that we wanted to undertake.
Twenty-seven years ago, and still today, the best choice for
safe and easy flying is to use Flying by
Foy.
After the play was over we got to see the equipment used and
talk to the staff about how easy it was to run and if there were any problems.
The set needs to be designed with the flying in mind and the
backstage crew needs to be able to see the actors and be able to hook the
cables to the actors with being seen, both of which are not too hard to do if
planned ahead of time.
Also safe places for Peter
and the other actors who fly to take off and land are needed.
In addition to learning about the flying the producers also
like the girl who played Peter Pan
and she would end up playing Wendy in
our production that summer.
The musical calls for some fun scenery in addition to the
flying.
The play starts and ends in the nursery of the darling
children, Act II is in Never Never Land and most of Act III is
on The Jolly Roger .
The realistic set for the nursery was flown out to reveal
the underground lair of the lost boys.
We build a 30’-0” wide, 8’-0” high cave platform that was
stored way upstage and was rolled downstage for the scene.
The boys could climb on top and slide down a fireman’s pole
to get into the lair.
We needed to make a tree stump that was to be the chimney of
the underground lair.
It needed to have a little trap door on top and give off
some smoke.
Today we could use a small battery powered fog machine but
that was not available back then.
To make the puff of smoke I used a rubber hose filled with
talcum powder that was attached to the bulb of a turkey baster.
As one of the actors came up to the stump they stepped on
the turkey baster and PUFF we had a little smoke.
It was not a great effect but it worked.
The stump was classic scenic construction: Plywood top and
bottom, 2x4 frame covered with chicken wire and papier-mâché.
Like many other items it would stay in our stock for years and
was used in many other plays and acting projects.
The Pirate Ship
was a side view with the ship’s railing and ropes hanging down form unseen
rigging and masts.
We did have some canvas hanging down too but I do not have
any photos from this show so I do not remember all of the details.
One of the Pirate
actors did make his own prop telescope.
It was a simple, a couple of pieces of PVC pipe, but he had
a plastic eyeball at the end that he could have move side-to-side.
A few weeks before the show a technician from Foy came with the equipment and set up
all of the flying rigs.
He taught us how to run it and take it down after the show.
The equipment was well made and easy to use.
It was designed to do one thing and one thin only and that
was to fly people in Peter Pan.
The company has made many changes and improvements to the
flying systems since then and that can be seen in many shows today.
The flying went well and we had no problems, well that is
until the last show and one of the last fly cues.
Before a flying scene the actors would move upstage by the
window curtains where there was a small hole in the wall from which the crew
could attach the cables before the flying scenes.
The hook was simple, just a metal bar that slid out of two
drill holes and was snap back when the cable eyelet was in place.
The high-tech method used to hold the bar in place was a
rubber band, yes just a rubber band ! ! !
In the last scene time has moved on and Wendy has grown up and now has her own daughter Jane and Peter Pan returns and flys off with her.
Jane was played was
played by the same actress as Wendy.
Just before her last fly cue the latch that hooked the cable
to the flying harness jammed open and we could not get it to lock.
With only seconds to attach the cable I made the decision
after what seemed like minutes to tell the actress the just fake it.
The young actress turned and went on with the rest of the
scene, jumped up on the window sill and then jumped into the air to fly away.
She would fell flat on her face on the mats we had upstage
of the window.
We all ran in to see if she was OK and as I got to her I
thought she was crying, but when she turned over she was laughing uncontrollably.
Without the pressure of the show it took just a few seconds,
and a pair of pliers, to free the latch and hook her up for the curtain call.
Do not feel bad for the actress, she was OK and would return
a few years later to be in our production of A Chorus Line and then go
on to have active career on Broadway and is directing a play this summer at The Williamstown Theatre Festival.
Check out Jessica Stone’s work on her Internet Movie and
Broadway Database pages:
It seems we had another local Star in the cast and the guys on the crew all got a good laugh when
they found out that the actress who played Tiger
Lily was a featured dancer at one of the local strip clubs.
Some of the goys talked about going to see her in action but
I am not sure if anyone really went to check out her show.
That summer was fun and we had a good group of workers, many
who had worked on previous summer productions.
We worked hard and played hard too.
Parties, Wednesday Barbecues on the loading dock and a
little time away up at the lake.
I think it was that summer that I saw baseball cards at the
store and said: Gee I haven’t seen these in years.” And of course bought a few
packs.
The next year I bought a few more packs and the next year a
few more and . . . . well ask my wife as
I have too many card now, but that is for another Blog, or better yet E-Bay.
.
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