Legally Blonde was put on by the CWRU Footlighters, a fully student-run musical theater troupe at Case Western Reserve University. A musical with 18 different locations in a theater with no wings resulted in the use of a three sided turntable.

Director: Beth Magid
Lighting Designer: Stephen Finnegan
Costume Designer: Michelle Reynes Berg

Pictures: Andrew Moore

The turntable’s main job was to allow us to change the set ‘backstage’ when we had no backstage and no wings. Legally Blonde takes place in 17 different locations, so we divided our turntable into three sections. Pink-which functioned as Elle’s room, stores, and the nail salon. Brown-which functioned as Harvard, Offices, Hallways, and the courtroom. And Blue-which was our miscellaneous side and was used as a restaurant, transition scenes, and the bathroom.

A door was put on the platform to allow people to enter directly on it, but most importantly for the scene showed above. During the song ‘Legally Blonde’ Elle and Emmett sing from each side of Elle’s dorm room door, and we wanted the audience to see that divide but also see both of them.