rec.arts.theatre.stagecraft

charles wrote in
news:4f6e0253a8charles@:

> In article ,
> David Lee
> wrote:
>
> [Snip]
>
>> Why does the lamp need to be practical? Is it demanded by the
>> script or just a gag dreamed up by the director?
>
>
> It's in Ayckbourn's original script. of course it was written
> in 1972 when no-one was worried about safety issues.
>

The real key is that it needs to be an effect that LOOKS like the
actor is grabbing a lamp base hanging only by its wires, and not
a lamp base that is ACTUALLY held on by its wires.

The lamp base is actually secured to 1/8 wire rope. The Light
bulb is one of these:
/toys/fester/

All you need is to jumper the switch, so you run a small gauge
set of wires from the bulb, up the wire rope, and backstage to a
switch. No dimmer, no mains, no risk of electrocution, and no
reaksi of broken glass.

The wire rope is run up to the grid then off stage, where it is
secured against the first two tugs. When the thing is ready to
pull down, it's unhooked and left held in place by a
counterweight. Now the base will drag out as needed.

The "exposed" wires are dummies.

--
}:-) Christopher Jahn
{:-( /

"A live body and a dead body contain the same number of
particles. Structurally, there's no discernible difference. Life
and death are unquantifiable abstract labels placed on otherwise
similar bodies. " Alan Moore, WATCHMEN, DC comics