[SML] Break-away table

[Richard Niederberg]

We (the CBS shop) made 10 matching breakaway Grand Pianos for the Carol
Burnett Show, and pairs were destroyed at each blocking rehearsal and each
Audience taping and additional 'pick up shot'. Conway and Korman could
destroy them artistically.
/s/ Richard

On Thu, Feb 8, 2018 at 12:18 PM, Dougherty, Jim via Stagecraft <
stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:

>  Let’s start with the obvious, but since it hasn’t been said yet I will:
> get a fight choreographer in there and make sure you don’t actually use the
> actor’s head.  You’ll chew up your understudy budget otherwise.
>
> We’ve had to do a set full of break away furniture, mostly chairs but also
> a wardrobe door. The chair technique could work for the table – they were
> built of pine, using mortise and tenon construction but no glue. Joints
> were either just friction fit or held with bamboo cooking skewer pins.
> Shifting weight was enough to make the whole thing collapse.  They were
> fairly straightforward to reassemble for another night’s run, too. The
> wardrobe door breakage might work for a table top – using ¼” lauan for the
> top, but scored and cut on the back.  We routed an irregular shape on the
> back, almost all the way through, so that a hole could be knocked into the
> door but a break or other damage could easily be done by changing your
> pattern. Scoring with utility knives on the back where you want it to break
> can also work.
>
> Good luck!
>
> - Jim Dougherty
> ATD, Middlebury College Theatre Dept.
>
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-- 
/s/ Richard
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