SCENERY: Stair unit transitions

[dallas10086]

I have an unusual challenge I've been brainstorming that I'd like to share.

I'm working with a scenic design that is comprised of two large staircase units that are both around 12' high, and each unit has two doorways. These staircase units are shifted throughout the performance to place the audience in various locations in this manor. The challenge is, both units are entirely actor driven. The other challenge is, because there are 20 positions in Act 1 alone, the actors need to have a reference of where their unit is positioned next. I can handle an offstage reference just fine, but to cover my bases I really need to have one on each unit as well. Since at several points the audience sees the back of the units, the reference must:
1. Attach to the wall.
2. Lay fairly flat.
3. Be of a decent size (they shouldn't have to squint to see it).
The director has taken pictures of the model in each position, so I have those at my disposal. I originally thought of a booklet that the actors could turn the page and somehow the page they turn would stay put somehow, and just have a piece of duvateen over it that would cover it when not in use. I'm all about K.I.S.S. at this point.

Ideas?

Edit to add topic tag. -Maribeth

[Maribeth]

Is there other scenery on the set, or just the two stair units?

Are all of the positions different? Or do they ever repeat?

Do the actors come offstage between moves?

[leastlikely]

I had a production with five moving walls, and we used different colors and shapes of spike. One particular shift had a green X. So the reference point on the wall itself was the top half of the X (or rather, a V coming to a point at the floor), and where it met on the floor was the bottom half of the X. Another shift had a purple stripe with white on either side of it - match up the two purple lines so they create one continuous line from wall to floor.

This set was actually used for two productions (it's complicated...) so I got to see the previous show's reference system during our changeover - they had far fewer shifts than us, and what they did was use all white spike, but assign each act a different color highlighter. So the white spike with two orange highlighter dots is the second shift in the orange act, the spike with 4 blue highlighter dots is the fourth shift in the blue act, and so on.

EDIT: I forgot to say, these were walls on a horizontal track, so we had the entire back side of the wall at our disposal. So we posted photos of each change and the order they had to happen on the back side of the wall, as well as a bit of spike tape to show what mark we had to use for that shift.

[Jessie_K]

I think what you mean is a "cheat sheet" for the cast so they know where to move it to next, not so much a "how to spike."  Am I right? 

(Though the above mentioned spike methods are good)

Could you hide your scene change charts inside the door somehow?

Brainstorming here, can you write something in glow paint?  It could be visible in dark or dim light and disappear in stage light?  "After scene 3- move USR and rotate clockwise- purple spike mark"

If you go with the book-style idea (which could work) try a calendar format rather than book- it might stay put better.  Start with "december" for first shift, then pull down page to see next shift-- by the end of the play you are at "january."  You understand? Not using actual months-- just trying to explain how I would have it work.

[dallas10086]

Yes, I mean cheat sheet rather than how to spike.
There are some positions that repeat more than once, I'd say about 1/4. The rest are original, especially in Act 1.
At some points, because the moves are close together, the actors stay with the units rather than leave the stage.
There are walls that fly and track on, but there are far fewer of those cues.
There are no doors, just doorways.

I'm looking for a way for an actor to turn one page at a time without having to use both hands, without having to sort through several pages to find the correct one, and somehow for those pages to stay put together after they've been referenced. I was thinking pages in page protectors and 'velcro' without the velcro, since that would take two hands and be noisy).

[SMrose]

Can the actors consider this similar to choreography?  Learn the "steps".  Refresh memories when they're offstage w/ cheat sheets--looking at a few moves ahead at a time?
Do you have a mock up at the rehearsal space so that transitions are being incorporated early?

[nick_tochelli]

If it's something you're thinking about covering with Duv anyway, why not try something like flash cards with the pictures of positions. Then the actor only need remember a number (like I'm moving stairs to position 4, or 15 and find the appropriate card).

No page turning, cards are always present and laid out so they can see them, and if they're covered with Duv, no harm no foul.

[dallas10086]

They each have a stair transition cheat sheet with pictures and cues they've used in rehearsals, but some of them are simply not (ahem) technically minded enough to sing and act and remember where to put scenery all at the same time. I'm leaning towards a booklet because covering the inside of a stair unit with over 30 flashcards doesn't seem a sensible option. Not sure numbering the positions would help.

[Maribeth]

Similar to Nick's idea- What if you had a single cheat sheet, maybe one side per act, with all the cues listed like this:

1-1 Sarah's house (Red)
1-2 Courtyard (Blue)
1-3 Cemetary (Green)
1-4 Sarah's house (Red)

Do they have to have a picture, or will spike colors be enough? You can make it a lot smaller with no pictures, and if you can fit each act on one page, no flipping required and it would easily fit behind a piece of duv. Flip it to the other side at intermission.

[Jessie_K]

Yes, I mean cheat sheet rather than how to spike.
There are some positions that repeat more than once, I'd say about 1/4. The rest are original, especially in Act 1.
At some points, because the moves are close together, the actors stay with the units rather than leave the stage.
There are walls that fly and track on, but there are far fewer of those cues.
There are no doors, just doorways.

I'm looking for a way for an actor to turn one page at a time without having to use both hands, without having to sort through several pages to find the correct one, and somehow for those pages to stay put together after they've been referenced. I was thinking pages in page protectors and 'velcro' without the velcro, since that would take two hands and be noisy).

Yeah, that's why I suggest the "reverse" calendar orientation.  You could do this with your page protectors and perhaps small binder clips at the top.

Staple the edge of the page protector to the wall (landscape orientation) with the first image/cheat sheet in the outer most page protector and the last one closest to the wall.  The actors see the first page, do the change and then flip that page down revealing the next change.

Gravity will keep the old pages out of the way. 

[MatthewShiner]

We did this in Measure for Measure in the park - two rolling stair cases.

At the end of the day, the cast needed to learn the spikes . . . we did some fairly simple spikes (colored, multiple colors, patterns).   And since they had to do it to music, and match moving scenery - it was a dance step.  If you can get them into rehearsal soon (even mock ups) - it will save you tons of time.  And, we had stair rehearsal - 30 minutes of working transitions in Act 1.

We found, eventually, the director simplified the looks - he grew tired of watched the stairs move EVERY time, and we found it actually easier on the eyes to return to the same position more then once.  (Although there was a version of new step locations for every scene.

In rehearsal, we attached a cheat sheet to the stair case (Move downstage, apex at 12:00n (our stair case had a return, so we marked one corner as apex . . . and allowed them to remember - oh, we have to shift it 30 degrees as we move it to the next spike.)

[dallas10086]

We did this in Measure for Measure in the park - two rolling stair cases.

At the end of the day, the cast needed to learn the spikes . . . we did some fairly simple spikes (colored, multiple colors, patterns).   And since they had to do it to music, and match moving scenery - it was a dance step.  If you can get them into rehearsal soon (even mock ups) - it will save you tons of time.  And, we had stair rehearsal - 30 minutes of working transitions in Act 1.

We found, eventually, the director simplified the looks - he grew tired of watched the stairs move EVERY time, and we found it actually easier on the eyes to return to the same position more then once.

I've lashed Z-racks to each other, made them rigid by attaching 1x1s to the top, and draped fabric over them to stand-in for walls and doorways. They've been working with them since day one and they've been an enormous help. I've scheduled time in first tech just for stair transitions and blocking on the stairs. I'm hoping with more time the actors will have quicker recall on where the stairs need to go - I've given them every tool possible, they just need to cement them with their blocking. But there will definitely be references on the units and offstage.

Jessie_K: I understand now what you mean with the calendar orientation, thank you!

[vbskeeby]

I would try to keep it as simple as possible and I'd use cue lines.  A one-pager on each set unit (because when you're moving that unit, you don't need to confuse yourself with everyone else's spikes and cues).  So each page would have just the moves for that set piece like: 

"Actor's final words" *beat* *beat* BLUE.  Or "Actor's final words" *SR stairs clear* RED.

And then offstage I'd have the full sheet with all of the moves if people have questions about how pieces move together.  Depending on how it looks from the deck, I may or may not put it in a slick sheet, especially if glare is an issue.  Or if it can be put inside the unit where the audience can't see it, that's great, too.  Or it could be covered with a flap of duvetine.

[Thespi620]

I did something similar with 6 14' tall wall panels on wheels--with a complex braking system that would lock 3 panels together in the back, etc--and this was the simplest solution we could find.

Director & I made diagrams of each setup and turned them into a powerpoint presentation. Then we essentially took Powerpoint's "notes" view and added Q lines & operators as the notes. We color-coded spikes, as well, and I believe we ended up putting a thin strip of each spike color on the physical cheat sheet, once printed.

I definitely still have the document somewhere, if you want to look it over send me a PM. It worked pretty well.

[dallas10086]

Deep into tech at the moment, but here's what we ended up doing:

The deck chief and I both sat down with the model pictures and put them in order, after running just stair transitions for the first two tech days. I made a cheat book for SL and SR, both identical, both labeled with scene locations, cue lines and spike colors/patterns. There is no cheat book or cheat sheet on either unit, there turned out to be no way to put it on the unit without the audience seeing it at some point.

The most effective change we made? We moved a few actors around so that at least one tech-savvy actor was on each unit that we could trust to communicate to the others onstage. They are essentially 'stair leaders.'