I’ve been doing a lot of work in the theatre space, designing special effects and illusions for various productions. After watching Beauty and the Beast this past weekend and smiling each time a rose petal fell fluttering to the stage I started thinking about how many productions don’t get the benefit of a magic consultant.
A history of Theatre Illusions
This got me thinking about all of the illusions for all of the productions I’ve worked on over the years and how others might be able to benefit from what is essentially work I’ve already done. I’ve created magic for everything from Beauty and the Beast to Dracula and even Annie. There’s a lot of history there and a lot of magic.
This led to a decision. I’m going to start compiling these theatre special effects and illusions into small books that I will make available here on the website.
The “Theatre Illusions” Series
The name of this series will be, “Theatre Illusions” with the tagline, “Bringing MAGIC To The Theatre”. I hope to release the first in this series some time in the next month. So far I have the following three initial editions in mind:
The Effects of Beauty and the Beast
- The Floating Enchanted Rose
- The Chip Cart
- The Enchantresses Flame (2 methods)
- The Beast Transformation (2 methods)
The Effects of Dracula
- Hiding places: designing the set for the magic
- Dracula enters: several methods of secretly getting Dracula on stage
- Flying the bat: 3 methods including and over the audience flight
- Transforming into the bat
Into the Woods
- The witches magic (2 methods)
- The Deceptive Bed Illusion (2 methods)
Time to Start Writing
Well now that I’ve written about it here, I had better put my money where my mouth is…or is that keyboard? Either way, I had better start writing!
Stay tuned for more on “Theatre Illusions”…






