Star Wars In School Stage

This class is called Stage Chemistry; the unit is called Below & Above. Stage Chemistry is about finding new ways to see things. What I mean is when you go to a play you are not really interested in how and what happens backstage. We learned about what goes on behind the stage. The FE that we went to was to the Steppenwolf Theatre. We got to see two stages. One was being taken down from a play a couple months back the other one was being set up for a new play. What we had to do for our AP was create a design of the stage we made a blueprint from our last Action Project (if you would like to see it, click on here). We needed to create a model that is around the size of a shoe box. We had to make safety protocols for two motions on our stage. This means we had to make two things that could move on the stage. What I liked about my project was turning the blueprint we had made into a model and make a design out of it. What I had trouble with was the scale part of it. At the end, I just used the scale I used in my blueprint for the model as well. I overcame the struggle with scale by cutting out pieces of cardboard in different scales and putting them together and deciding which one I liked best.

The picture to the left is the blueprint of my stage. It shows where the stage is and a lobby. The picture to the right is my design of my stage. It shows the door and the trapdoor which is in the back. This was made out of cardboard.

The Death Star, AA, 2017

Here is a video of a trapdoor working in Star Wars, which is what I based my play on. This clip is from Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi when one of Jabba's slaves fell through the trap door. This shows how it looked in the movie, and I am going to do the same scene in my play on my stage.



Here is my version of the Star Wars trapdoor. How this works is that when a person is on the trap door, the door will not do anything. There is a person in back pressing a button to open it.

Man falling, AA, 2017

Here are some things that can go wrong with the trapdoor.
TRAP DOOR: A person could get stuck, a person could fall too hard, the door could close too early, the door could open and close rapidly all at once.
TRAP DOOR FEATURE: Trapdoor will open, a person or figure will fall, then the trap door will close.

Here is a sign that shows what to watch out for.

Trapdoor Warning. AA. 2017.

Here is the force diagram for the trapdoor that shows what forces are acting on it. It works by having pressure on it and a button.

Trapdoor man, AA, 2017

Here is the mathematical formula equation for the trapdoor. There is a trap door and a person is on it who weighs 140 lbs. One pound is equal to 4.44822 Newtons, so you multiply 140 X 4.44822 then get x in newtons which is 622.7508 N. To get the F_Net , you see what can hold the 140 lbs body weight up, it would be 140 lbs (or 622.7508 N). The F_Net is the F_up - F_down. It would be 140 lbs - 140 lbs which is 0. The F_Net is 0 for this equation. Let's also show this in straightforward mathematics:

Fnet = Fup - Fdown

0 N = 622.7508 N - 622.7508 N

Here are the doors. The actors will use the doors to enter and exit the stage but audience members will not be allowed to use these. This is my animated version of doors opening and closing. How it works is when a person goes to the first door the pull it, whereas for the second door, they push it. 

Man Walking Through Door. AA. 2017.

Here are some things that can go wrong with the doors.

THE FOUR DOORS: The door won’t open, the door won’t close, the door could break, the door handle could break off.
THE FOUR DOORS FEATURE: The 4 front doors will open so a person or figure can go through them.

Here is a sign that shows what to watch out for.

Notice. AA. 2017.

Overall, the building process was fun. At times, it was hard and frustrating but, in the end, it was a nice process. For the animation or GIFs, I found that process was really annoying and I had to remake my picture over and over again. One of my last times taking the picture, I lost them on my computer but after a while, I found them and put them together as a GIF. While physically making my stage, I learned really important rules about using X-Acto knives. One of the rules I learned was to not put the knife down if the blade is out. I don't want to do that because someone could get cut.

Star Wars In School

This class is called Stage Chemistry, the unit is called Behind. Stage Chemistry is about finding news ways to see things. What I mean when you go to a play you are not really interested in how and what happens in the backstage. We learned about what goes on behind the curtain of plays. The FE that we went to was to the Goodman. Before we watched Uncle Vanya, we saw what they did behind the curtains and how people make blueprints for it. What we had to do for our AP was to turn a non-theatre place and turn it into a place where you could have plays there. We needed to make a blueprint of a place where we want to have a play. I decided my place would be at GCE Lab School in a room called The Death Star.(See photos below to see the layout of the room.) We call it that because of how it looks. There is a light thing that is made up of C.D.s. What I liked about my project was turning that space into a theater. What I had trouble with was trying to think of good ideas to do for my theater. I overcame that by drawing it out and trying to find a good scale I ended up choosing 0.8 Inches = 2 Feet.

The transformation of it was easy and hard. Overall the theater I created could fit about 20 to 30 people. The parts that I hated for the transformation was the calculations and measuring. The parts I liked about the transformation was how it ended up as and the whole space overall. A few things that I wish I could still change is the size of the space and how big the stage and trap door is.

                                       The Death Star, AA,(2017)

                                   The Death Star, AA,(2017)



The Death Star Stage, AA,(2017)

For my stage there are three places where you can watch it. You can watch it on the left and right of the stage and in front of the doors. There are two stages in the Death Star. The main stage and a small but longer stage going down the middle of the audience. This is why this stage is called a Thrust stage.

My Stage Vs Albert

My Stage	Albert	% Compare
23 Seats	856 Seats	My seating is 2.6% of the seating at Goodman's Albert stage
Fly Space (above the stage above the height of the proscenium): 0 ft	Fly Space (above the stage above the height of the proscenium): 76.5 ft	My fly space is 0% of Albert
4 toilets	18 toilets	I have 22.2% of Alberts toilets
Center of stage that is removable 3 ft x 3.8 ft:	Center of stage that is removable: 34 ft x 40 ft	I have 0.83% of Albert center stage
4 sinks	7 sinks	I have 57.1% of Alberts sinks
4 Bathrooms	2 Bathrooms	I have 200% bathrooms of Albert.