Magically Appearing Box of Turkish Delight
Effect for The Lion the Witch
and the Wardrobe
Originally created for the production at
Cavod Community Theater, a part of Cavod Academy of the
Arts in New Holland PA
Article copyright Joe Dunfee 2013
For this effect, I pictured the box of Turkish Delight appearing on a snow bank. The box itself was to be made so that it is
collapsible, and the snow bank made so that, when hidden, it would be covered
by a layer of batting, to simulate snow. When the box was to appear, the White Witch would point her magic wand
at the snow bank, and a small "poof" of white confetti would come
from the wand. At that moment, a
stagehand would pull a string that would both pull the snow covering that hid
the box, and cause the box itself to pop-up.
Here are a few pictures I found that I used for inspiration.
In retrospect, I wished I had made something that looked more like them, but
time constraints limited what was possible.
The illustrations in the PDF show the general construction
of the device, and its use.
Magic Turkish Delight Box -Illustration.pdf
In the actual installation, we cut a piece of plywood,
approximately 2' x 3', with rounded corners. In the middle of the plywood, I
placed a screw-eye, which is where the box would be set, and held in the
collapsed position. Another screw eye
was put at the edge of the plywood, so that when the snow covering was pulled
off of the box, it would not be pulled too far. The plywood
was covered with white batting, to simulate snow. The weight of the plywood was sufficient to
hold the prop in place while the trip line was pulled.
The box was made from matboard, and hinged with black duck tape. I deliberately used black as part of its décor,
so that if the box didn't pop all the way up, it would be less obvious. Rather than have a ribbon over the entire
box, as I originally drew, I choose a curled ribbon that would not get
messed-up as the snow covering were removed.
Inside the top portion of the box, was a tray that contained
the Turkish delight candy itself. This
was made by taking some pink insulation foam, and cutting grooves into it, to
simulate individual candies. The, I held
the foam over a gas flame, to create some irregularities. To simulate the powdered sugar, I used
"Spray Snow", which is normally used to simulate snow on windows for
Christmas decorations.
I cut out one of the
square "candies" and substituted a piece of foam rubber, into which I
had cut a recess in the middle to hold some corn starch. The purpose of this, was so that the character, Edmund, could pinch some of
the starch in his fingers, as he would mime taking some of the candy. Then, he
would rub the flour onto his face, as he pretended to wipe away the sugar
coating from his face.
The snow covering was framed with a wire coat hanger, and
the underside covered with packaging tape, to create a smooth surface that
would not snag on the box.
To set the effect, the box was collapsed, so that a wire
loop fastened to the tray in the top of the box, would poke out a hole in the
bottom. The, this was placed over the
screw eye on the plywood base. A wire pin approximately 12" long, was placed through both the screw eye and the wire
loop. This would hold the box collapsed until the wire pin was pulled out. Finally, the snow covering was placed over
the box.
The video at this link shows a demonstration of the effect being
triggered; Turkish Delight Demo
Post-mortem; I was not satisfied with the strength of the
pop-up. The elastic was not sufficient to cause the box to come up from a fully
collapsed position. So, I added a spring
to the middle of the box, which greatly helped the box to start up. Also, the
box was made from mat board, but in retrospect, foam core would have been a
better choice, even if it resulted in a thicker box when collapsed. Also, covering the box with wrapping paper
was both very time consuming, and didn't result is as nice a finish as I had
hoped. Directly painting and decorating
the foam core would be better. I had
made the box larger than many people might expect, because of need for theatrical
exaggeration for props that are used on stage. But, in retrospect, since this box appears on a bank of white snow, it
would have shown up quite well if it was much smaller.
I am happy to reply to any questions you have about this effect. You can contact me at joe (at) Dunfee (dot) com.