As the title says, there is a stage production in need of a flying Pegasus for one scene. There will be a person riding it. Has anyone seen this done before, or better yet been involved in its production?

The theater stage is raised, so sight lines will be pointing upwards. I'm pretty sure a flying rig is out, but if it is a possibility I will update the thread. I was thinking of something like a susp***ion on wheels. It doesn't have to move much or go far, but a nice steady slow movement across the stage and back would be nice.

Anyone got any ideas? We can also discuss via PM or email.

Thanks!

John Calvert did this in his big show, I believe when he played Australia. It is (probably) the same rig that he did his floating pipe organ with, and the space ship. There is a very small photo of it in Furst's "Great Magic Shows", it is pictured, but not described.

Blair

(PM also sent.)

The most cost effective approaches, without being cheesy, are (a) black art and (b) creative staging.

Black Art has no need for expensive flying rigs or harnesses - everything is ground supported and can be on casters. I did a National panto Tour of Dick Whittington and His Cat and quite a elaborate underwater scene (giant fish, mermaids, etc) was done this way.

Creative Staging can use shadows, lighting and staging to interject a "magical look and feel" to a sequence. For example in a live production of "Into The Woods" the giant's wife terrorizing a town was done by having the giant's shadow cast onto a large white scrim with proportionally smaller town and people. On TV the show Supernatural dramatically represents angels sometimes by having a giant set of dark shadow wings into the background behind the actor (it looks very effective the way they do it - not cheesy).

The point being that unless you have the realistic expereicne, time or re$ources to perform this as a magic trick, try looking at what you want to artistically achieve in other more practical ways.

Just my humble opinion.

Rick

PS: If you want any more details on this PM or email me and I would be glad to expand on these.

The most cost effective approaches, without being cheesy, are (a) black art and (b) creative staging.

Black Art has no need for expensive flying rigs or harnesses - everything is ground supported and can be on casters. I did a National panto Tour of Dick Whittington and His Cat and quite a elaborate underwater scene (giant fish, mermaids, etc) was done this way.

Creative Staging can use shadows, lighting and staging to interject a "magical look and feel" to a sequence. For example in a live production of "Into The Woods" the giant's wife terrorizing a town was done by having the giant's shadow cast onto a large white scrim with proportionally smaller town and people. On TV the show Supernatural dramatically represents angels sometimes by having a giant set of dark shadow wings into the background behind the actor (it looks very effective the way they do it - not cheesy).

The point being that unless you have the realistic experience, time or re$ources to perform this as a magic trick, try looking at what you want to artistically achieve in other more practical ways.

Just my humble opinion.

Rick

PS: If you want any more details on this PM or email me and I would be glad to expand on these.

Oops - my bad - was trying to correct spelling and double posted.

As I recall Melinda Saxe had a flying horse in her special. Check out YouTube. I bet they have a video of it.

Watch this and make a more robust version: http://youtu.be/9nAC6ztIUbQ?t=2m36s

Great advice, Stolz/

Yes, very good idea. Now I just need to modify everything to make a stronger rig that will be safe.

WOW! I did EXACTLY this several years ago and we still use it today. For my application, it's for a passion play and it's when Satan arrives to tempt Jesus. Satan makes his first entrance floating a few feet off the ground, and slowly descends. My rig is virtually identical to the one that this guy came up with, except every part of mine is steel.