Stage is 36' wide, 28' - 30' deep, headroom= 19 - 20 feet.  Need it to start at 8' - 10' and the grow to 15'- 18'.

 

No fly system, but we have pulled things over the batten and we have also hooked pullies up using beam clamps.  Out thought was to pull it up via pully, but making the tree is another matter. We can also attach to the deck.  Our budget is paultry with most of it going into costumes.  We're a children's educational theatre and most things happen through the generosity of parent volunteers and donations.  We can probably manage to cover material costs. The director wants the bottom no more than 6 to 8 feet wide. Blocking has kids behind, so we probably don't need much in the back.  We've thought of building 180 degrees in the front with the back flat and trying to use a pully system using concentric hoops lying flat on the floor until hoisted. So it should get wider at the bottom.

 

Does this help?

 

Thanks.

 

 

most of the productions I have seen use a flat, accordion folding drop of some sort that maximizes the floor space - either painted muslin, or dimensional soft foam, and the layers accordion for storage..  of course, a groundrow of packages to hide the extra is required

 

I had had a thought about having a hard piece, with pieces that would extend from the middle out, so instead of just growing, it would expand in all directions... 

 

If you can swing it, put 'candles' on the tree for lights, too... 

 

That said, I am pleased to let everyone know (keeping in mind that our crew is totally parent volunteer, none with theatrical background) we HAVE realized the director's vision.  It's hard to explain but we did focus on the real (artificial) tree and the concentric circle idea.  One of our volunteer dads created a top portion of the tree (very painstaking) by using  a small diameter pipe inserted down into the top of the main tree trunk, adding steel rings to the core, attaching stiff wire branches to these, covering with cut garland and tying it all together with a web of fine black aircraft string. When down, it all colapses into a 9 ft tree, when hoisted from the top by pully, it grows another 6 ft. and for purpose it is a real tree. Again, difficult to explain, but I intend to photograph and video to to share with everyone.  We are now in tech so this may be later.

 

Many thanks again to everyone.

 

Tony...