Property of ACC

For this final Action Project in Stage Chemistry, we wanted to re-create the classic story A Christmas Carol (ACC) with our own twist to it. This version of ACC that we made up is based in Chicago, Illinois around the Civil Rights era which was the mid 60's and the characters stayed the same, we just made them fit into the way life was at the time. When creating this with the rest of my classmates we were all assigned to specific things to create for the play. My group was assigned to do props for the play. So we created a moving background with two scenes. We have created a time lapse of our work over the few work days we had and took photos of the end project build idea.


Time Lapse Video;

For this final project we had to keep in mind that whatever group we were in that we had to know who it would affect the most. The three roles we decided that the background would impact the most were the actors, the audience, and the set designer. There were a ton of things that were needed between these three roles.

The audience needs the background to be clear and visible so we put a light bulb inside of the background scenery. They need some backgrounds so they won't get tired of seeing at the same thing for every act. The also need the background to be realistic to help them to stay focused on the play.

The set designer needs the background to be realistic. The background must also be a machine that is easy and simple to build so that it can be moved once it's set up. The actors needed a background that looks real enough for them to be in front of. The background  has to go with the stage as well, so it doesn't seem out of place to the actors.

When we were finally done with the brainstorming and the sketches of ideas and models of ideas, we came up with a background scene that would resemble Chicago   at night, and in the day. We decided to have night on one side and day on the other. It would look realistic and the back that it could change from night to day.

Photo's of Project; Below is a series of photos of the scene prop(s) that we made and which one that we chose to do.The sketches are below as well, showing our ideas and how we wanted it to turn out.

LF, January 2015. Ideas For Background Scene

LF, January 2015. Ideas For Background

LF, January 2015. Sketch For Final Idea of Background Scene

DS, January 2015. Daytime Scene

DS, January 2015. Nighttime Scene

JD, January 2015. Gif of Day & Night

JD, January 2015. Draft Stage Scene

JD, January 2015. Draft Stage Scene 

JD, January 2015. Draft Stage Scene 

This set piece is a symbol of the idea of props because without this set piece the play won't work. You can't have a play with no scenery or any form of background, it's very vital to the imagination the audience needs. The final product that we made addressed all the needs required in the beginning because our background prop was not set to one kind of scenery, it made sense based on the setting of the play, and it's creative because of the tech that goes along with the background (the "sunlight" and "moonlight" light bulb).

After completing this model, we listed our design's weaknesses.

• It shouldn't have to be taken off the stage, we should find a solution that requires less man power.
• The process of switching scenery should be quicker.
• The background should be illuminated.
• Scene should be able to move
• Make it more real