Notice in this photo - she is standing over my stage-right trap door. Click photo to enlarge:
EXPEDIANT SOLUTION:
I needed a quick, simple and cheap solution for a trap filler. It had to be a porous grate yet it must safely hold actors during the show. So the obvious trick that popped into my head was to use a plastic-style industrial shipping pallet.
I went to the local "garden mulch store", where they grind up old wooden shipping pallets to make colored mulch for landscaping. They were nice enough to give me a dozen of the plastic kind for free! These are the heavy duty PVC plastic pallets made by the seaport of Hong Kong for shipping one ton engines and such. I used most of the pallets to build my elevated bandstand for this production. But I picked the nicest one to cover my trap door opening.
The plastic pallet was about 3-1/2 feet square. I only had to trim about 1/2 an inch off each side to get it to drop perfectly into my opening in the stage floor. It was very secure and very safe. I anchored it in place with a few 3 inch drywall screws at the corners. I painting it to match the science-fiction theme. (It had latex primer paint inside and out as a flame retardant).
Anyhow, when the "Some Like it Hot" gag occurs in the song, I had a crew kid under the stage blast her with an electric leaf blower! (The boys on crew would fight over this particular job). The loud on-stage rock band easily covered the sound of the leaf blower. The effect was terrific every time. It got the intended laugh from the audience!
BONUS!
Later in "Forbidden Planet" I needed a dramatic effect for the entrance of the evil mad scientist, Prospero. So I had the crew blast him from under the stage with a Rosco smoke machine, boosted by a fan. I also had a couple PAR cans under the grate with green gels. The effect was cool, and the actor really milked it for laughs.
Click to enlarge:
Notes: High school actors - Greensboro Day School. Director - Ruthie Tutterow. Set/Lighting Designer - Dana Lowell.
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