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yachanin Inner circle Cleveland, OH 2105 Posts |
Hi All,
I posted this in another section of the Café, but a colleague suggested I post in the Grand Illusion section instead, so here goes... A director friend of mine is putting on a play, "The Witches: A Set of Plays" by Roald Dahl (of Willy Wonka fame). In the play, two young boys (on separate occasions) are forced on to a table by a group of witches and given a potion which changes them into mice. Can anyone direct me to a convincing, yet easily constructed/performed, person vanish illusion from a table top (a stuffed mouse will appear in place of each boy)? They don't have a large budget and any construction will be done by the members of the cast (no trap doors on stage, either). Thanks. Regards, Steve
"Impossible? Your audience will think so..." TM
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jimgerrish Inner circle East Orange, NJ 3209 Posts |
Black Art is the most obvious answer, but to make it convincing, it should be movable black art beneath the table so you can see people's legs beneath the table at various times before and after the transformation has taken effect on top of the table.
Jim Gerrish
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George Ledo Magic Café Columnist SF Bay Area 3042 Posts |
If you want something really simple and want to keep it as a theatrical effect and not call attention to it as a magic trick, the vampire trap works well. I just looked online and there seem to be very few references to it (and no drawings that I could find), but it can be built into a table. PM me if you want more.
That's our departed buddy Burt, aka The Great Burtini, doing his famous Cups and Mice routine
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Chris Stolz Inner circle Mississauga, Ontario 1958 Posts |
Quote:
On 2013-06-24 01:03, yachanin wrote: If you need a magic for theater consultant, hop over to stolzillusions.com and drop me a line.
Chris Stolz
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MagicalMotivator Veteran user 310 Posts |
Steve,
There are many things you can do to create the effect and a moment of "theatre magic" and stay away from a "magic trick" $cenario. What you need to do is to break it down into a couple of different elements and block it out with your cast, staging and lighting to get there. 1. You need a place for them to go - use BA or rather "set costume disguise" - this is behind the table on another piece of scenery which has the disguise on it (so as not to draw attention to the table itself after the transformation). 2. To accomplish this invisible movement of the boys you have to re-distract the audience's attention in a transformation scenario. A couple of elements that would help is correctly used and positioned lighting + simple fx distraction + blocking of the actors. For example the boys are on the table and the spell is cast. One of the witches puts some dry ice into a small bowl and places this under the table (but more toward the front/audience)- this could even has small glowing light magically start under the table. This is followed in about 4 seconds by smoke via a small smoke machine adding more smoke from the rear of the table onto the stage and table itself - followed by sharp lighting beams cast on the boys from overhead. The other witches start to move about the table (setting the audience up as this being a normal action on their part) as the transformation music starts. Another magic bowl is used to toss magic powder (sparkle dust) into the air over the boys (who have started to twist and turn as in pain on the table) which has the lighting now move from direct to strobes (very fast paced - industrial units can be cheaply rented which allow them to be in exact synch) - at these few seconds the witches move in tight to the table chanting loudly, allowing the boys to "exit". Sharp blackout - just for 2 seconds - and the overhead lighting moves back onto the table as the witches back away, revealing the two mice (don't forget to add the sound effect of mice). Just an idea of what you could do. I really don't know your exact set up, just wanted to give you a flavour. If you would like to discuss more I would be glad to help if I could. Just PM or better yet call or email directly. Have fun! Rick |
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