Mulan Jr avalanche and Mushu fire

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February 2, 2012
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Does anyone have any different ideas on how to stage the avalanche and Mushu's breathing fire ? Thinking of using big white sheets for the snow as well as white ribbons on sticks. Also thinking red Chinese yo yo's and ribbons for Mushu's firey breath. Other ideas?
3 Answers

February 7, 2012
Hi Julie, We did Mulan last year for our school show. For the avalanche, I had actors carry white umbrellas from the back of the house down to the stage. The audience saw the mounds of snow heading toward the soldiers. It was a great effect. I also had a snow machine in the catwalk above the stage and dancers on the stage at the same time using white and blue gymnastic ribbons. It worked well. Have a great show! Alyson

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February 4, 2012
HI Julie! Mulan is such a great show....besides "Fiddler JR", nothing celebrates cultural traditions better! Andrew's ideas sound fantastic! Have seen the streamer gun used before, sometimes it can be tricky and upstage Mushu. For "stage craft teaching", having kids come up with solutions such as your Chinese yo-yos, streamers that KIDS can generate and facilitate is alos perfect for this show. White fabric in streamers combined with some simple lighting effects that students can control can give your avalanche illusion and stay in balance with whatever age group you are using. The sky is the limit, but letting the kids brainstorm and experiment sometimes leads to a goldmine! No doubt other showpace users will expand this repertoire! cr

February 3, 2012
Avalanche - we found a video segment of an avalanche, where the snow comes right down and runs over the camera. We projected this on the back wall as a frozen image, with the ShanYu and crew walking infront of it. When the rumble starts, we "hit play". The timing was perfect and as the music hit the crescendo, the "camera" was oblitterated. As the snow started coming down we had the ancients coming on in pairs with two long bolts of white fabric, which they "fluttered" at the time of impact, eventually laying it down atop the fallen huns. (Hope that describes it clear enough) For Mushu's fire, we used a small hand held air cannon ("Streamer Beamer") to send a single load of streamers (Red, Yellow, Orange) over the audience. It came as a delightful surprise, based on the delighted gasps (and brief chatter). The only drawback was the power of the cannon, as it tended to launch the streamer "past" the majority of the audience. On the bright side, the novelty of the effect had kids scrambling, after the show was done, to take some streamers home with them. There was little to no clean-up required. "Cool" I've posted a slideshow of images from our production, and if you look at 1:39 you can "just" see the streamers as they shoot from Stage Left to the back of the house Stage Left. Video Link We also used the video projector at the very start of the show, to display the "ancient's symbols", along with an english translation. You can see the sequence at the start of the video. Make sure to post pictures when you are done. I'd love to see them.