The Play That Goes Wrong is one of my favorite plays and I always wonder how the different stunts and effects get pulled off, especially since there's so many of them and there must be so many complicated moving parts backstage - both literal and figurative. So cool to see how your production did it!
Like, I knew elevator had counterweight because it's important that both sides weight the same so that there is little actual effort. But, somehow, the explanation that you had to add weight to counterbalance the weight of the comedian and furnitures was mind blowing. I had not realized that it's possible that it requires little effort, that there can be a moving equilibrium. Magnificent!
I saw this in the West End and _knew_ it must be a string of miracles of engineering and electromagnets behind the scenes. Mischief Theatre is incredible, nice job with your version!
When the touring show came to Dallas they did this stunt and not one minute later a malfunctioning fire alarm went off. They then had to reset the floor and do it again. It was literally the play that went wrong.
After seeing this, and understanding about 1/5 (not his instruction, but my lack of savvy with the whole idea of something this “tech”nical), I would let him build my house. A play has a whole other world the audience doesn’t see. The artists who make things work backstage (and on) are truly the heartbeat of a production.
My school is planning on doing this play and has asked me to construct something similar, can you share any more specifics about materials and blueprints of the steelwork?
Clever and well-engineered design. Few people realize what time and effort goes into physical effects like this to ensure that no one gets hurt. I was going to comment on the absence of a failsafe block stop past the second “full collapse” position but when viewed from the front, it doesn’t seem that there would be an appreciable amount of additional travel that the machine would go through, maybe 12"? Had you devised any other solutions that wouldn’t require as much consumption of backstage real estate?
Thank you! You are correct about the No additional failsafe. I did design one initially, but as you also discovered, the ground was my failsafe because it couldn’t go any lower. In terms of using less backstage space, the design that I was thinking was using cabling that unlatches at different lengths. Would use up less space backstage and steel cabling can take the weight.
Wow! !! !!! I can't wait to see my 1st "Goes Wrong" production at any level, but, having been apart of Set Design | Construction for a dozen & ½ productions, this gives me heartburn thinking about it! !! !!! Looks like a fabulous solution! !! !!!
This is my first exposure to this show, and I may just have to propose this one for our next season. It looks like a hoot, and I'd love to try my hand at that collapse!
Thankyou for sharing these videos. But this one especially !!!! Our playhouse is planning on doing this next year and we are trying to get ahead of the schedule. Seeing what is involved This is great Thanks
I did it at a small black box community theatre (I was Trevor) so we had to get creative with how we did it. Our falling platform didn't have to have support for weight since no one would be walking on it. Our second floor was larger, so the actors up there could be up there without stepping on the falling platform. We had 2 triangle floor pieces supported by hinges and a support pole that Arthur the Gardener fell into. The pole was latched to the floor and platform during act one, and during intermission we would discreetly unlatch it for the fall. We tried a full square piece but it kept getting stuck and would fall about half the time. Two falling triangles were consistent and smaller/lighter so less chance of error. th-cam.com/video/r3fxMd804ZM/w-d-xo.html
The moment of initial pivot was between the 2” box steel and the solid rod. Because of weight and friction, some of the movement transferred to the pillow block bearings. Sorry I didn’t go into that kind of detail in video.
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The Play That Goes Wrong is one of my favorite plays and I always wonder how the different stunts and effects get pulled off, especially since there's so many of them and there must be so many complicated moving parts backstage - both literal and figurative. So cool to see how your production did it!
As a theater techie and someone who was absolutely enamored by TPTGW in NYC, this is the exact video I wanted to see. Thank you!
Me too!!!!
Like, I knew elevator had counterweight because it's important that both sides weight the same so that there is little actual effort.
But, somehow, the explanation that you had to add weight to counterbalance the weight of the comedian and furnitures was mind blowing. I had not realized that it's possible that it requires little effort, that there can be a moving equilibrium. Magnificent!
I saw this in the West End and _knew_ it must be a string of miracles of engineering and electromagnets behind the scenes. Mischief Theatre is incredible, nice job with your version!
When the touring show came to Dallas they did this stunt and not one minute later a malfunctioning fire alarm went off. They then had to reset the floor and do it again. It was literally the play that went wrong.
After seeing this, and understanding about 1/5 (not his instruction, but my lack of savvy with the whole idea of something this “tech”nical), I would let him build my house. A play has a whole other world the audience doesn’t see. The artists who make things work backstage (and on) are truly the heartbeat of a production.
When I saw the show on tour, I screamed with the rest of the audience because my fear of heights kicked in during this scene.
My school is planning on doing this play and has asked me to construct something similar, can you share any more specifics about materials and blueprints of the steelwork?
you can contact me at Fishlift@gmail.com for more info!
Clever and well-engineered design. Few people realize what time and effort goes into physical effects like this to ensure that no one gets hurt. I was going to comment on the absence of a failsafe block stop past the second “full collapse” position but when viewed from the front, it doesn’t seem that there would be an appreciable amount of additional travel that the machine would go through, maybe 12"? Had you devised any other solutions that wouldn’t require as much consumption of backstage real estate?
Thank you!
You are correct about the No additional failsafe. I did design one initially, but as you also discovered, the ground was my failsafe because it couldn’t go any lower.
In terms of using less backstage space, the design that I was thinking was using cabling that unlatches at different lengths. Would use up less space backstage and steel cabling can take the weight.
I just loved this part. The way the floor falls is pure ingenious.
Wow! !! !!! I can't wait to see my 1st "Goes Wrong" production at any level, but, having been apart of Set Design | Construction for a dozen & ½ productions, this gives me heartburn thinking about it! !! !!! Looks like a fabulous solution! !! !!!
And here I was thinking our homemade Audrey 2 was the most complex thing a school production would do… damn this is impressive
I saw this show in LA a few years back, it's so interesting to see how this operates back there. Thanks for making this video!
This is my first exposure to this show, and I may just have to propose this one for our next season. It looks like a hoot, and I'd love to try my hand at that collapse!
Fascinating, the technical aspect is honestly more fascinating than the show itself.
So unbelievably fun, we were surprised by the original cast last year and they were all brilliant!
You should patent this. Nicely done.
Very ingenious! Well done, it looks very stable.
Thank you very much!
i love these behind the scenes tutorials
Thankyou for sharing these videos. But this one especially !!!! Our playhouse is planning on doing this next year and we are trying to get ahead of the schedule. Seeing what is involved
This is great
Thanks
Glad it was helpful!
This is great! Thank you for showing us!
My pleasure!
Excellent Job!
Just opened our production last week! So cool to see how you did this compared to ours
Ingenious!!
Go Bison!
I'm glad it was just for the play and not an accident. When I saw the title, I got the wrong idea, lol
More interesting than the actual play.
Hey! Is there any edits you would make to this design if you were to build it again? Also, how much weight did you end up needing on backside?
I did it at a small black box community theatre (I was Trevor) so we had to get creative with how we did it. Our falling platform didn't have to have support for weight since no one would be walking on it. Our second floor was larger, so the actors up there could be up there without stepping on the falling platform. We had 2 triangle floor pieces supported by hinges and a support pole that Arthur the Gardener fell into. The pole was latched to the floor and platform during act one, and during intermission we would discreetly unlatch it for the fall. We tried a full square piece but it kept getting stuck and would fall about half the time. Two falling triangles were consistent and smaller/lighter so less chance of error.
th-cam.com/video/r3fxMd804ZM/w-d-xo.html
Thanks!
We used hydrolic for the platform
so if rhe 2in box is the pivot.... why the bearings.....
To securely hold the rod in place.
@@fishlift85 but the bearing becomes the pivot point not the box section
The moment of initial pivot was between the 2” box steel and the solid rod. Because of weight and friction, some of the movement transferred to the pillow block bearings.
Sorry I didn’t go into that kind of detail in video.
[weird, I would not want to get up on that contraption.]
ACORS: ALWAYS BE NICE TO THE CREW. ALWAYS. THEY CAN KILL YOU.
(OR, AS IN MY CASE BECAUSE THEY LIKED ME,) THEY CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE.
THEY CAN CUT SOUND ON YOUR MIC. THEY CAN ENSURE YOU ARE NEVER SEEN BY TURNING YOUR LIGHT OFF.
ALWAYS BE NICE TO THE CREW. ALWAYS....