[SML] Rain and lots of it

[Richard John Archer]

Dry out??  Aren't you  in San Diego??   Can't you just open the door???   : > )

We had it rain quite a bit a few years ago for Grapes of Wrath. (Spring 2005).   Our ideas were in the USITT Tech Expo catalogue for Phoenix (2007)   We were selected to win a prize.   You could read about our "method" and see and equipment list in there.   If not available,  I might be able to find and send it to you.   Loren was on the judging panel, he might have a copy or remember what I did,  We built a working  rain exhibit for the USITT expo.    

Basically it was very low volume  rain.  A combination of misters and low flow heads with one way  ball check flow valves to stop drips.   This unit was a manual on off but could easily have been a solenoid main valve.   In the same show we had a small pool, covered for most of the show,   which served as the river.   We used the original Brdwy production  truck although modified with triple swivels to roll better.  

Our AC was enough to keep down the moisture.  It wasn't bad enough to effect the drapery, which,at the time,  was fire treated cotton velour and not IFR material.  Drapery remained hanging in the fly tower, only borders were used for the run.    We only did two weeks plus a couple of weeks of rain tech.  It really only rained for about 15 minutes during the show.  

I found a link  to the online USITT article


http://tdt.usitt.org/GetPDF.aspx?PDF=43-2techexpo07

"River" pool visible in picture

Hope this will help...BTW .....it was quite an effective  moment ....if I do say so..... and I've done a lot of shows here over the last 35+  years and during my 20+ years in  regional theatre.  


DickA
TD, Cornell U




On Oct 2, 2015, at 12:35 AM, Ben Thoron SML via Stagecraft wrote:

> An upcoming project is said to "require" rain all night onstage.  I
> put it in quotes because, there's obviously no real harm in just
> pretending its raining.  But, the current thinking is that rain is an
> essential part of the story telling.
> 
> So- what I think happens when in rains inside a theatre for 2-3 hours
> a night, for seven weeks is that we we run the risk of becoming a 650
> seat terrarium...
> 
> Has any body had experience on a project where it rained, really
> rained for the whole show?
> Could you hear the actors, did the audience have to get up and pee,
> did concessions run out of hot cocoa?  Was there mold EVERYWHERE?
> 
> I've done shows with some rain, 5 minutes or so, dumped 100s  of
> gallons of water across the stage, made a pond (with a boat), and had
> a swimming pool on stage.  Clearly, I'm not afraid of water, per
> se...just getting wet and not being able to dry out.
> 
> I'd appreciate the wisdom of the list.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Ben
> 
> Ben Thoron | technical director | the old globe | 619-235-2260| 619-
> 846-9529 Cell | 619-231-1037-fax | bthoron at theoldglobe.org
> 
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