help with "guys and dolls" set?

Question

my school is putting on a production of guys and dolls, and we can't figure out how to do the sewer scene. we have EXTREMELY limited wing space and no way to stow things above (you know, the screen things). a panel with a sewer backdrop is too big to fit, and we run out of ideas after that. we could always opt for a cop-out solution, like having a water-dripping sound effect and perform in front of the closed curtain, but it would be great if there were other options. oh, and my school is very much over-focused on athletics, so the arts don't get a whole lot of funding. thus, any reasonable solution would have to be cheap.
if anyone could suggest something, that would be awesome. thanks!

Answer 1

Do it with sound. Black backdrop, lower all lights to nil, dripping water sound effect, footsteps in shallow water sound effects, even a squeeky rat sound effect. Have the all the actors carry flashlights. If its dark enough, you can do some fun things with blocking the actors and the position of the lights as people enter/exit the scene.

www.findsounds.com will help you find ambient sounds like dripping water, sewer rat, and maybe even footsteps in water. I'd have one of my go-getter students or stage manager put together an MP3 loop you can play over the sound system (or mike a boombox if necessary).

Answer 2

Since "Luck Be A Lady" is a big dance number, your choreographer will hate you if you do it in front of the main curtain - there's no room to dance!

If you have an upstage traveller curtain (preferably black) you could pin canvas painted to look like representative pieces of the sewer (pipes, etc) onto the curtain. Or paint a sewer backdrop and hang it on the traveller track.

You have no fly space, but could cut pipes out of luan (a very thin plywood panel) and hinge them to the ceiling so with a pull of a rope they are stowed out of the way flat to the ceiling and then swing down into place when needed.

Continuing with luan, you could cut large representative pieces and have the Hatbox Girls dressed as the gangster's molls holding them upright during the scene. They'd be flat and easily stored (the set pieces, not the girls).

You don't need to get too literal with the set, a suggestion of place is all that it really takes.

Answer 3

For my production we just used a standard painted flat with carpet tubes for pipes on it. We also used a smoke machine (just a little bit of smoke). The sfx idea is good, I like it, but that in and of itself is probably not enough alone. That's just an example from what we did, hope it helps.

Answer 4

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