Sunday, March 17, 2013
Piano for Wild Party
Prop Agenda: Every musical needs a piano, right? Of course, if you have a piano on stage and people are dancing, you’re going to want the people to dance on the piano as well. Such is the prop master’s life. I had to build a dance-able piano for Elon University’s production of The Wild Party, which closed a few weeks ago.
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8 comments:
Guess we're gonna need one of these, huh?
I once worked on a less nice version of something like this for a production of Singin' in the Rain. All in all, it was a pretty fun project, somewhat equatable to making an oddly shaped decorative platform. It's the painting and finishing which I imagine makes most of the difference, a la believable looking or not believable looking. Possibly tough to find something just right as well, seeing as it has to have a glossy look but not be slippery for the dancers. There are a lot of elements to think about. Overall, a very cool props project, and a piece that can most likely be kept for future use.
Including structure into aesthetic is certainly something we have to take into consideration in the theatre quite often. I would guess that the most difficult part of this was deciding where tension and compression would be of greatest use and then deciding how to cover the parts that were absolutely necessary. I have to commend him on the clean wave of the body of the piano. His use of bendy board is a smooth one. Kassondra brings up another good point about the finish. Usually I'd be hesitant to put glossy finishes onstage due to lighting glares and slippery surfaces but whatever he found seems to do the trick.
This project must have been one of the "red flags" that we talk about in class. I can't imagine how I would have begun to approach building a danceable piano, so whoever made that piano now has my respect. The final product is stunning and it fits right in with what I love most about props: it's all about making something out of nothing, or something very simple. The way the legs were done out of 2X4s and the facing was made of ply, is a great way to make it simple but have the right aesthetic. The most impressive part is that it is a danceable platform. I agree with Kassondra, the paint definitely makes the most difference. without it, the platform looked like a piano shaped platform. or at least was noticeably fake. however the second the paint goes on, it looks like a real piano. This is a really cool project and I hope I get to work on something like it one day.
I'm sad to say that I never thought about the fact that you can't simply dance on a really piano. Oops. I wonder whether we will have to rent one for the musical next year or if we will simply build a danceable piano. also, I wonder, is there any way that you could make you danceable prop piano actually playable? I understand that you probably wouldn't do that for a musical, just have the pit play the part and the actor fake it, but what if you really wanted it to seem real? It seem like it would be quite hard to find someone with a grand piano that they don't mind you revamping and dancing on.
I dotnt really see why you cant dance on a real piano. haha im sure that they wouldntve built a fake one if it wasnt nessisary but still i guess like jenni i just never thought about it.
How lucky was this guy? his dad just happens to have some left over broken down pianos in his garage? man i hope someday my mom is hiding something so useful.
its also interesting to think that we will be putting on this show! I think that this project is very difficukt because it had to be light enough to move- and normal pianos are extremely heavy- but also sturdy enough to hold weight.
i have taken apart a piano before to transform it into a different instramnet more of a harp for a show, and whats the most heavy is the cast iron plots.
Even though im sure there are tons of perfectly good pianos that could have been used in the show they would have been much to heavy and probably not turdy enough to have been danced on, not to mention much too expensive. Such is the life of a Propsmaster taking something that already exists and making an as identical as possible copy,but out of entirely different materials and structure and for nearly no money.
I actually had a similar experience myself this past summer. While cleaning out a theatre's warehouse, we found a baby grand yamaha piano in a corner under some fabric. The tuning was beyond repair and the noises that thing made were just awful, but the shell and woodwork of the piano looked like new. So we gutted the hard from the piano, left the keys in place, and added supports under the lid. Now the theatre has a a fake piano on whioch they can freely dance on, play the keys without making noise, and doesn't weigh nearly as much since the cast iron harp is gone. It really turned out to be the best prop piano.
I guess I never really realized just how necessary this is. I would've thought using a normal piano would've been fine, but in context it is very necessary. I feel that at times some people may neglect or just simply gloss over the structure of certain things until you really think about what is going to be happening to them. Luckily, there are people whose job is to make sure things are safe and such while making it look good. I feel like just the general idea of this article, besides the fact a makeshift piano was made, is to show that some things may not be considered until further though out.
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