Theatre Stages

[Melissa Nute]

I am in the process of writing a theatre paper at school about set design. Well...actually a letter to a set designer advising him with what to do. (Silly IB assignments)

I am discussing the use of a mawari butai (revolving stage); however, I decided to make it mechanical instead of the traditional use of stage hands underneath the stage. My mawari butai is on top of the existing stage. Basically, my point is I am trying to figure out how to describe exactly how to build a gear-motor system that will be able to support such a revolving stage and more so exactly what type of motor to use for this.

[sanddrag]

First of all, the motor will not support the stage. Something else will have to. I know casters suck but for this application several of them all over may be the way to go; with a large axle sort of something for the center of the circle. Excatly how much is this going to weigh when it's built and people and stuff are on it? Also, how big will it be? If it only needs to go one way, you can probably pick up a large AC motor at some sort of surplus store. It shouldn't be too hard to find one with a standard keyed output shaft. Something like this maybe http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=30188 You can also search harborfreight for "motor" and see the other ones. You will have to gear it down quite a ways.

[Melissa Nute]

I know the motor does not support the stage...but its power will affect the turning of it. The purposed weight will be almost 4000-4500 pounds that will have to be supported. The design of the top of the mawari butai is almost 13 feet in diameter.

[Jason Rudolph]

Wow, someone actually asking about theater on this board, something I never thought I'd see. Anyways, here is a good company to try and contact, some of their installations are pretty darn cool. They might be able to help you out.

http://www.macton.com/