# Into the Woods - Witch's Staff



## K.B. (Mar 9, 2015)

Hello all,

I'm new here so I apologize if I approach this incorrectly! I'm helping out with a local production of Into the Woods. The witch walks around with a large staff and there are places in the script where she "zaps" other characters. The director asked for the staff to "shoot sparks." I don't want to do any pyro as this is an old theater and I don't want to hire a professional. So I'm looking for suggestions as to how to make a similar effect.

Preferably it would be something the witch could control so that the timing is right. I'm hoping someone out there has done this before. Maybe some sort of strobe light I could attach to the staff? I'm sure there's better ideas that that, that's why I'm turning to your community! Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!


----------



## seanandkate (Mar 9, 2015)

Tell the director how much of your budget will be eaten up by delving into the world of pyro, and that should help end the conversation. Besides, this is something that can be accomplished with a lighting change reinforced with a sound cue. It's hard to give specific ideas without knowing what your theatre / lighting rig looks like. You don't have to have the staff light up, so long as it looks like the lighting effect is coming FROM the staff. A special aimed in a similar direction to the staff lighting up the "unfortunates in the spell" will sell it just as well as pyro from the staff, if not more so. Talk to your LD and ask what ideas s/he can bring to the table. This can be a design opportunity.


----------



## bdkdesigns (Mar 10, 2015)

I don't think you even need the sound effect, I'm pretty certain that those zaps are written into the orchestration. I basically did what was just mentioned, had a light on a boom offstage that flashed as well as a FOH mover flashing.


----------



## kicknargel (Mar 10, 2015)

But, if you want to make the staff do SOMETHING, I think the strobe is a good idea. There are lots of varieties of 12v strobes from the automotive world. Shouldn't be too hard to incorporate one of those with a battery and a switch if you can find one that does what you want.


----------



## rbalewski (Mar 10, 2015)

Not sure if you can find / make something small enough to work, but I bet if you can get the staff to shoot out a bit of glitter, with the right lighting it'll look a lot like sparks.


----------



## seanandkate (Mar 10, 2015)

rbalewski said:


> Not sure if you can find / make something small enough to work, but I bet if you can get the staff to shoot out a bit of glitter, with the right lighting it'll look a lot like sparks.


----------



## kicknargel (Mar 14, 2015)

I (shudder) like the glitter idea. You could probably make a rig with just a squeeze bulb. Or get fancy with paint ball propellant and valves and stuff.


----------



## Old Gray Owl (Aug 8, 2015)

K.B. said:


> Hello all,
> 
> I'm new here so I apologize if I approach this incorrectly! I'm helping out with a local production of Into the Woods. The witch walks around with a large staff and there are places in the script where she "zaps" other characters. The director asked for the staff to "shoot sparks." I don't want to do any pyro as this is an old theater and I don't want to hire a professional. So I'm looking for suggestions as to how to make a similar effect.
> 
> Preferably it would be something the witch could control so that the timing is right. I'm hoping someone out there has done this before. Maybe some sort of strobe light I could attach to the staff? I'm sure there's better ideas that that, that's why I'm turning to your community! Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!


+++++++++++++++++++++++
What I used was a narly wild cherry sapling in which I machined out a cavity to hold two flash units that I extracted from a couple of disposable film cameras. I set the staff to have two micro push buttons so there could be two flashes in short order. The actress was instructed to press the downstage button so the audience would see the flash. Our set designer then dressed up the staff with some spanish moss and jewels. It also has an on-off switch. The power source is a Lithium AA battery. We are currently using it in our production.


----------

