Creating a Realistic and Safe Water Effect Onstage

One of the commonly occurring elements of life that is difficult to recreate on the stage is the presence of water. One example of such an effect would be to portray a person taking a shower. The person is in an enclosed stall, perhaps with plastic sheeting as windows into it. In the shower effect needed for South Pacific, the water is provided by a filled bucket overhead, which is tipped down by a pulled string.

When generating a water effect on stage, a few things need to be considered for safety and sanity’s sake. The designer needs to be directly concerned with the ultimate destination of all water involved in the shower. In the example of the stall shower effect, the shower stall is built on an elevated platform with a tapered surface to allow for water drainage into a drain. This drain empties the water involved in the effect to an appropriate receptacle underneath the platform. For the South Pacific effect, an appropriate receptacle would be a bucket similar to the one used to dispense the effect. This is convenient since we know the exact amount of water dispensed throughout the entire effect.

It is important to note, however, that a simple drain will not take care of all problems caused by water on stage. As the water falls forth from its source onto the platform, it is bound to splash in undesired directions, in the case of the stall shower; the interior of the shower stall is obviously bound to get wet. To ensure that the effect is repeatable, and that the water does not damage the materials of the set, it is important to, whenever possible, for surfaces that will come in contact with water, use materials that are not vulnerable. Using corrugated steel to construct the walls of the makeshift shower stall would be one way to do this. To protect wood surfaces, such as the platform itself, either treat them with a good sealant, or cover them with plastic. It is, of course, not advisable to cover the entire stage floor, or in our example, the shower stall platform, with plastic, as actors may slip and sustain injury. Furthermore, any wet surface may cause a slippage risk for those on stage or involved in the effect. For this reason, when stage walking surfaces will be exposed to a water effect, it is necessary to apply some sand paint in order to provide traction should the surface become wet. The proper way to complete the shower stall effect would be to water seal the wood platform, tapered to allow water to run into its drain, and then paint it with a sand/paint mix to provide traction. Similarly, the way to achieve a full-stage water effect (as in Singing in the Rain), would be to provide a false stage, tapered to allow for proper water runoff and to cover the entire surface with a sand/paint mix.