Half A Sixpence -(3)

Beside the umbrellas and telescope, there is also the incident of the broken door glass when Kipps cuts his hand... toffee glass is great, but quite often breaks while trying to get it into the door panel, cellophane just doesn't give the same effect, and you don't really want to injure your leading man.

Your stage crew and props have to be on the ball for this show!

One of the more difficult props to engineer is the camera and flash for “Flash Bang Wallop”. At the time of the story it would have been magnesium powder in a tray that made the flash, but even if you could arrange the necessary health and safety procedures to use that nowadays, there is the problem of repeated flashes in time to the music......not so easy at all. It requires your “photographer” to be able to manipulate a flash at the right time, yet still appear to be an integral part of the action. In our original production we used flash cubes linked to a hand held flash, but with the advances in digital photography these are no longer widely available, so a different strategy needs to be employed, and the inventiveness of your stage crew tested. Like any props that require some kind of action “Murphy's Law” is bound to be involved. (That is the one that says “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, and it is rarely the thing that you are prepared for”)

This can be quite a heavy show for props, the set dressing can be quite lavish; for Shalford's Emporium, there is a requirement for more than one counter which has to be dressed with goods, and covered and uncovered with dust sheets during the action, then the upper crust cricket match and party with ornate seating and champagne being served. Never mind the pub, with bar and tables for the customers, and the classroom with the practical door as above. The action moves through many different scenes, some of which are merely suggested by the scenery and differentiated by the props.

It really is worth being nice to your stage crew and props people, at least get to know their names and say “Thank you” . Most crews for amateur shows are only around for the week of the production, and are friends or colleagues of the Stage Manager, and if they are good at what they do, you really want to keep them on-side ; good volunteer crew are worth their weight in gold.

Once upon a time the crew were presented with a case of beer at the after show party, and that was their thank you for the week. Times change, and nowadays fewer crew members are beer drinkers, and they too appreciate a memento of the show as much as the cast.

One of the things we as a company did on “ Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” was to set up a Lumberjack's Tea for the crew between the matinee and evening performance; providing sandwiches and cake (and pies for Sevens) and serving them as our customers.

This could be done as a cricket match tea when doing Half A Sixpence, or a garden party style tea with cucumber sandwiches etc., although maybe avoiding the champagne between shows.