I’ve never done this play before, but this is how I would work out the effect:

Create your of the falling materials animation as a mpeg or QuickTime movie file on a computer or get a video production house to do it for you. Loop it and burn it to a CD for playback with the computer. Front project the image on the actor without a scrim (it will get in the way and unless the scrim is lit just right the effect won’t work). Use a high-powered LCD projector. They are very expensive but rentable at a fairly reasonable cost. High powered is the key. It has to have a high enough lumen output to overcome the stage lighting.

Build a platform placing a high-powered fan, a PAR can or two and a source of fog under it. Make the floor out of iron gridwork like you see on city subway ditches. The whole contraption has to be strong enough to safely hold all the equipment and the actor.

Have your actor stand on a grid where you can use a high-powered fan to blow up at her. Produce fog and inject it in the influent side of the fan. It can be even more effective if a stagehand could place small bits of soft material or confetti in the air stream (I stress soft as this chaff will be in contact with the actor). Give her a small cape for greater effect and let her hair and skirt fly upward. The animation should oppose the direction of the fall. For an added boost to the effect, put the actor in a harness with a bungee cord attached and have a stage hand lift her ever so slightly, just enough to allow her to float. Be sure the rest of the stage is in blackout. Even lights from the pit (if this is a musical) can work against the magic. To add an added distraction, add a lighted mirror ball rigged to make the lights move vertically, in opposition to the fall, instead of the standard horizontal. Sound effects could also be a very effective addition to your ruse.

With the proper choreography/blocking movement, lighting, sound and attention to detail this effect could work out nicely for you. It isn’t the least expensive solution, but it should wow the crowd.

FiatLux!

Bil K

You are quite welcome.

This is pretty rough. I just threw some thoughts on screen without giving much thought to logistics. There are problems like how to get the actor in the harness with the bungee attached, I didn’t take your theatre’s budget, capability or physical plant into consideration, can the actor be seamlessly placed on the platform from where she last was, What do you do with the chaff after it was blown upward, because it will come back down all over the place, ect.

I was more brainstorming than giving you effectual reality. You can take or leave any of these "layers" of effect. I mostly presented them as a catalyst for thought. Write me back here or at my e-mail box -- FiatLux@email.com if I can help further. Have fun!

Fiat Lux!

Bil K.