Hello,

I am the technical director for a high school production of Pride and Prejudice. B/c of the nature and length of this story, the play takes place in a variety of settings, which are quickly moved to for not very long durations. The script calls for "set shifts" instead of scene changes. All set shifts take place on a blacked out stage with the curtains open. Changing settings includes moving furniture around on a boxed set. The original playwright called for the actors to move the furniture around for set shifts. We originally planned to follow this idea. However, we are finding that it is becoming difficult to expect high school students to remember lines, blocking, ball dance choreography as well as set shifts. At the same time, I have a crew (backstage class) with kids who will be standing around in the wings handing furniture to actors but not much else. My question is this...I would prefer to use my crew members/stagehands to move furniture on the stage for set shifts. Would it be appropriate to have this done by the stagehands on a blacked out stage? The kids would not be in costume but would be wearing black. Do you think the audience would get distracted by this?

Thank you,
Kim

First off there's a reason the playwright wanted to do the changes the way it was written and should be done that way despite the percieved burden you think the cast will have.   You demand more you get more.  Demand less and you get less.

Originally posted by jayzehr Originally posted by B-M-D First off there's a reason the playwright wanted to do the changes the way it was written and should be done that way despite the percieved burden you think the cast will have. Just for the sake of discussion, do you think The Cleveland Playhouse is violating the playwright's intent by using a rotating turntable for their current production and not having the actors do the changes?

As BDM suggested have a 'brown out' [ which is 'Blue' in fact] using the black ducks & have the attired 'Luvvies' as well on the set.