Edited by brianwolters - 10/06/10 at 3:32pm

If I were asked to design this scene, I would place the "invisible" car at the "imaginary 4th wall" of the stage, between that actors and the audience.  That way, instead of having to stage all (or part) of a car, you can make 100% use of the audience's imagination....which is free!   And in this case, since this play is based on a movie that plays 24/7 at Christmas time, the scene is so well painted in people's memory that you don't really have to suggest much to make it work.

Anyway, I would play it in front of a cyclorama, but you could use a scrim or even a black traveler.  Then have the father and Ralphie kneel down-stage as if they were in the ditch beside the car.  Ralphie would hold the hubcap full of lug nuts, while the father fiddled with and cussed at a clunky old car jack, tire iron, (and maybe even an old tire).  Like I said, the "car" and the road itself is just beside them, downstage at the invisible 4th wall.

To reinforce this location to the audience, I would have the stage crew use large Mag-Lite flashlights connected together a few inches apart, (or two fresnels, or two pin-spots, or two followspots from the house, or whatever you have), to project the impression of passing car headlights swooshing across the cyc at random intervals.  This would mimic the feel of "car headlights" shinning across them and across the cyclorama - which in this scene would represent "the woods" up-stage beyond the side of the road.  (You could even enhance this idea by projecting a few tree gobos on the cyc).

Then I would further reinforce this location to the audience by playing sound effects of traffic and horns under the entire scene.I did a very rough and simple thumbnail sketch of this idea for you:http://mydraftingtable.blogspot.com/2010/10/blog-post.html

Finally, to mimic the lug nuts that Ralphie spills in the snow, I would use those silver mylar confetti discs that are about the size of a nickel.  He could toss them in the air and they would disperse on the stage floor, and you  could just leave them there for the remainder of the show.  I wouldn't bother with using any fake snow here...it's a given...based on what the audience already knows and the snow hat that Ralphie wears.  (Besides theatre is theatre...we should not kill ourselves trying to photo-realistically rehash motion pictures....In other words, never underestimate the power of your patrons' imagination!)

Thanks for the brain-candy for me!  I hope to do this show someday!  -Dana


Edited by Mr. Lowell - 10/07/10 at 1:19am

I have to echo the opinions offered above.  We did this show a few years ago and we used the 4 chairs setup for the car.  Everything was done in pantomime.  As long as your actors are good enough, you dont need anything but chairs.  Trust your actors in their talent and trust your audience with their imagination.

In order to make a quick transition between scenes the four chairs works easier.  The basic set is the livingroom/kitchen of Ralph's childhood home.  The kitchen table chairs transition into a car in seconds with no need of backstage crew involvement.  Realism is not called for as one of the next scenes has a 10 year old boy saving his family by shooting bad guys from the hip with his red ryder bb gun.

Thank you to everyone for the tips...we decided to use two benches and to mime the tire change...it is working well in rehearsals.