I have been struggling with ideas for a flexible set that could be used by Mary and Randy as a green screen in a first stage, but also used for a Projection/Dance piece at Light Dreams, and later adapted to other stages, swapping and adding panels.
Both Mary and I love doors. She has used them on stage before, as well as frames. I have photographed a lot of them. Open/close, Hide/see through, Behind/in front, Going in/Going out, Leaving/Coming back, a lot of visuals and feelings hinge on doors(pun intended).
Staying away from hinged screens, what if for a start we used 3 free standing 4ft x 8ft x 3/4" birch plywood panels lined up about a foot apart:
Two could be cut out for double doors, and one for window shutters, and all the doors and shutters hinged in place using double screen hinges so they can open both in and out.
The panels will need supports that don't get in the way of the dancers. I propose bolting them with strong angle brackets to some 1/8" x 3" x 36" steel flat bars.
There could be also two narrow hinged panels to fill the gap between the three main panels. It would look something like this:
The doors,shutters and narrow "gap panels" could be opened or closed in various ways, and hide or show through to the back wall.
We could project any kind of image mapped to the set. For example, I made a "Marrakesh Set" mapping these three panels:
If we close the gaps between the panels and open doors, it could look like this, showing through the doorways into the bright blue courtyard projected on the back wall:
Somebody could crack the shutters open and look out. We could have extra panels with doors and window and mix them in different configurations.
An idea I like a lot is to turn the virtual set inside out, and project the inside of the courtyard on the front panels and the street outside on the back wall, suddenly reversing the stage 180 degrees while the actors change side :
The point of view reversal could take place as the "actors" are in the doorways, and would require a 180 rotation in place for them during a very short black out. Walk in becomes walk out.
Actually, this set feels as much like Mexico or Guatemala than Marrakesh. No wonder actually, the Arabs occupied Spain for centuries after all. How about a Frida Kahlo storyline then? Now that's rich subject, and would make for very colorful sets:
"interesting" costumes:
and accessories...
Both Mary and I love doors. She has used them on stage before, as well as frames. I have photographed a lot of them. Open/close, Hide/see through, Behind/in front, Going in/Going out, Leaving/Coming back, a lot of visuals and feelings hinge on doors(pun intended).
Staying away from hinged screens, what if for a start we used 3 free standing 4ft x 8ft x 3/4" birch plywood panels lined up about a foot apart:
Two could be cut out for double doors, and one for window shutters, and all the doors and shutters hinged in place using double screen hinges so they can open both in and out.
There could be also two narrow hinged panels to fill the gap between the three main panels. It would look something like this:
We could project any kind of image mapped to the set. For example, I made a "Marrakesh Set" mapping these three panels:
If we close the gaps between the panels and open doors, it could look like this, showing through the doorways into the bright blue courtyard projected on the back wall:
An idea I like a lot is to turn the virtual set inside out, and project the inside of the courtyard on the front panels and the street outside on the back wall, suddenly reversing the stage 180 degrees while the actors change side :
The point of view reversal could take place as the "actors" are in the doorways, and would require a 180 rotation in place for them during a very short black out. Walk in becomes walk out.
Actually, this set feels as much like Mexico or Guatemala than Marrakesh. No wonder actually, the Arabs occupied Spain for centuries after all. How about a Frida Kahlo storyline then? Now that's rich subject, and would make for very colorful sets:
"interesting" costumes:
and accessories...
Right down my alley…
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