We recently did this, but the director allowed us to use heavy duty shelf brackets to keep it upright. We had a plywood base with 2x4s added on the sides to give something rigid to bolt the brackets to.

 

I MUST APOLOGIZE to you all however - not a good day for me to be responding to a question like this.  As a director, actor, technician, set designer/builder - I've been there, done that, learned a lot (still have much to learn) and just cannot stomach when some idiot director has not got a lick of good sense to know that certain things with no budgets, not their own space and so forth, cannot be done as they'd like them to be.  And they just need to learn what they should - to make better decisions than what they're asking you to do or shut up and accept that certain things are out of their understanding or capacity to do themselves....and out of the realm of being possible they way they wish, then they should therefore just close their mouth and live with it.

 

Again apologies to you and anyone else this offends.  But some people are just too thick to get it and understand that a bit of flat black paint can cover a world of things onstage and what doesn't get covered should be left to the audience to correct in their own minds - and yes for the most part they have the capacity to do that - but directors (and I AM one) have a tendency to think that audiences are often stupid (and they sometimes are).  BUT you cannot approach anything as though they are - you just have to trust convention, instinct, common sense and an audience who may or may not know what or how you did what you do - but accept it regardless as no-other-way!!

 

Again a million apologies for my rant - too early, too tired and too annoyed at the stupidity of some people who you can never seem to make understand what it takes when YOU know and they do not.

 

I stand down with great humility - really I do!!

 

TonyDi

 

 

By the way as David said - if you were to use steel base plate it HAS to be AT LEAST 3' square since most doors - especially if they're entry doors and not interior doors (but even then sometimes 3') then the base plate HAS to be as large as the door swings which is it's full 3' and BETTER if you have it at least a foot larger than the 3' door.  If done using a steel base plate that could be WAY heavy.  We used 3/4" plywood and THAT was heavy enough too...so steel wow!!!

 

We did an opera last year and I used a free standing door - but it had a 4' base with braces to keep it 90 Degrees upright to the floor.  We couldn't drill into the floor either but I DID use a wooden door frame with a 1' flat on either side of it to help hide the bracing a bit but didn't worry too much about it.  And I did two window units that same way - free standing and I used loads of concrete weights to help offset any imbalance.  But didn't have the restriction of a borrowed door so we could create our own door frame and so forth.  Windows were fake and still had a 3' X 3' square base.  Both the door unit and the window units required the base but the bases were flush with one edge - so that the base plate was at the back weighted down so the unit would stand upright like an L shape.  But I braced all these units with conduit, flattened on both ends and drilled with holes for screws to attach to the frames and the base to hold it upright.  All was painted flat black and with the right lighting and back curtains they were seen - just not obvious and audience can look past that stuff and see what's prominent and painted with brighter colors.  At any rate that still means bracing on a sturdy base plate that should be 4' X 4' if it's a 3' door.

 

I tend to center the door on the base. My reasoning is that it is easier for an actor to pass through without tripping, and it's more stable. But I'm no actor so I could be wrong.

 

TonyDi

 

Option #1:  You can hang the door frame from wires above and also at floor level use tensioned cables to the frame.  These must be there at the floor to give stability, so you will want to cover them with carpet, etc.  to hide them and prevent an actor from tripping on them..

 

Option #2: if the door is placed on a small platform to make it look like a step in or sunken living room, etc, you can use the platform to brace it from below.  I'd place a 2x4 under the platform and drill the door threshold to the that 2x4 through the platform plywood top.  AND, cut slots for two upright 2x4s  or steel shelf brackets to anchor to the sides of the doorframe.  This platform needs to be at least the 3' x 4' as mentioned above for the steel plate solution.

 

And 'yes' the director is an i-d-i-o-t .

I hate this no win situation - and want to throttle a director everytime the INSIST it CANNOT be done without a real door. 

          Keith