# Scenery Moving By Itself



## carsonld (Mar 31, 2013)

I recently saw the musical Hairspray at a theatre, and all of there scenery moved automatically, There were no people behind it moveing it or anything, It moved by itself, how can I achieve this?


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## rochem (Mar 31, 2013)

Money - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## carsonld (Mar 31, 2013)

I know that, But HOW is it achieved?


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## tyler.martin (Mar 31, 2013)

Deck Tracks. Either automated or manually operated. Watch this:


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## lwinters630 (Mar 31, 2013)

I am not sure which show and theater you saw it in, but there are many ways to move things. By your question I will assume your theater is not already rigged for this. Some are tracks in the floor, some require laying a new deck to allow for tracks without destroying the original stage. Still others are battery powered robotics.

If you have a specific project in mind then it would be best to describe your setting in detail, the play or situations you are trying to solve. Then others can post some direct answers.


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## rochem (Mar 31, 2013)

Sorry, I couldn't resist 

There are a lot of ways that this is done. In simplest terms, most systems make use of a dog and knife idea. A deck of a few inches high is built up over the entire stage, and then aircraft cable (connected to an automated or manual winch) is run underneath it through a series of sheaves. The aircraft cable forms a complete loop (to allow the scenery to travel in both directions) and where it meets is something called a "dog". The dog is a low-friction piece of equipment that can accept a knife being slid into it from the top. The knife is a piece of metal that attaches to the scenery and into the dog through a narrow slit cut into the deck, and is usually removable so that the scenery is not permanently attached to the deck. When you move the winch, the aircraft cable moves under the deck, and the dog moves along with it. In order to put scenery into the system, you just place the scenery above the dog, slide the knife through the scenery and into the dog, and the movement of the dog will now take the scenery with it.

It's pretty simple in concept, but quite difficult and expensive to execute. For one, you need to be able to deck up the entire playing area and offstage space - basically, you're raising the entire stage level a few inches. You also need access to sheaves and aircraft cables and dogs, and for anything of significant size, you'll need an automated winch as well. Hand-crank winches can be used for smaller, lighter pieces, but even those are expensive and hard to come by. It requires a lot of planning to get everything to line up, as you need to make sure your deck slit is in the right place and lined up, and that there is enough room under the deck for the aircraft cable to run freely. This is all just for a single straight track - once you start talking about multiple tracks or curved tracks or turtles, it gets way more complicated. There are other ways to do this, including ways that don't require the whole stage to be decked up, but this is kind of the "standard" approach.


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## What Rigger? (Apr 1, 2013)

...and sometimes it gets downright cray-cray.


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