How do broadway sets move

Unlike Mary Poppins , Chicago benefits from employing a minimalist design; the stage is dominated by a large band stand and little else in the way of scenery. This makes theatre-to-theatre changes easier. Still, even with such a simple scenic design, specific theatre spaces do demand specific set and staging changes.

So, a couple of entrances and exits would have to be made in the set. Instead of entering from the back of the bandstand, the cast would have to enter and exit from the side of the bandstand. These openings were already designed into the touring set. By Robert Simonson. The touring company of Chicago.

Photo by Paul Kolnik. Photo by Joan Marcus. Read Reviews for the Tick, Tick The tour of the Tony-winning revival officially opened in Minneapolis November 9. However, things can be worked out using a card set model, or even just pieces of appropriately-scaled paper moving around a scale ground plan.

Get the actors on as the last few pieces of set are moving into position, and try to make the change match the pace of the show. Think about the flow of the piece. Will the scene change enable the production to continue at the same pace, without interruption? Or will the moment be totally broken by the logistics of the set design and the need for furniture to be moved around.

Does the director want the scene change to be noticed? In that case, a well-choreographed scene change with some appropriate music might be perfect. Are the actors able to do anything meaningful while the change is happening around them? Maybe the actors do the whole scene change themselves — in character. In a domestic setting after a hurricane, for example, it may be absolutely appropriate for the family to put their home back together. Or maybe the first lines of dialogue could be spoken by the actors as they walk across downstage in a tight cross light while the change happens upstage of them.

Before you can even begin to construct a theater set, a lot of behind the scenes design work must be completed. Every production is different in terms of its setting and time period, so the set needs to properly reflect the production.

Set designers will typically begin researching the play and its setting to get inspiration for walls, color schemes and different furniture items or props that should be present.

In terms of color, Arts Alive suggests that color alone can help set the mood of the play, stating that a designer will typically use brighter colors for a comedy and darker colors for a drama.

Different theaters have different areas of visibility and different blind spots. A designer must know the theater inside and out in order to properly design a set. Otherwise, when it comes to marking scenes, you risk part of the audience missing an important part of the play. Some productions elect to use bulkier sets as the backdrop for the entirety of the show, while others will change set pieces between every scene.

Either way, ease of motion and how each piece will be moved in and out of set is taken into account before sets are even built. Every set has different needs. Some shows will have very minimalist sets and the actors will walk right into the audience. Other shows have elaborate sets, complete with spiral staircases or even a rotating stage.