The Phantom of the Opera - Act 2, Scene 9. The Phantom walks over to his throne and sits on it. The Phantom covers himself entirely with his cloak. Meg walks over to the throne, and then pulls the cloak away. The Phantom has vanished, leaving only his mask…

My task was to create the vanishing Phantom effect for our local high school's summer theater production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, “The Phantom of the Opera”. I had the following constraints; no trap door under stage; the throne may be placed in the middle of the stage without any curtains in which to hide.

There are many options for the design. Should the seat flip backwards, allowing the Phantom to tumble out? Should there be a false back with a sliding board to the floor? Should a portion of the throne seat slide back with help from the crew?

As with all of the technical props that I create, my overarching design goals are for it to be safe and robust. I considered or prototyped a couple of ideas. I decided to have a false back, but I use a different way for the Phantom to disappear behind it. My first design for a false back was to have a piece of plywood on a hinge at the top; this turned out to be too heavy, and potentially unsafe. Another idea was to have a chaise lounge pillow as the back, which I think would have worked, but I didn't have anything like that. I chose to use a piece of black fabric (which I doubled for weight), stapled to the top. I will discuss the actual method by which the Phantom disappears, at the end.

Supplies

Materials will vary, depending on how you want to create the look of your throne. I used materials that we had from other shows. The seat portion was a box from a previous show; it is made from 3/4-in. plywood for the top of the box, 2x4 frame, and 1/4-in. plywood for the sides. The arms were from another chair that we had. We wanted the throne to be very stable so we did not want to use wheels; we added several large door pulls for the crew to carry the throne.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Sandeply-5-2mm-Sande-Plywood-1-4-in-Category-Common-1-4-in-x-4-ft-x-8-ft-Actual-0-205-in-x-48-in-x-96-in-479023/203414042
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-6-1-2-in-Zinc-Plated-Door-Pull-15186/202034074
Fabric for false back.
Black fabric to cover back of throne.
Miscellaneous decorative items.
Material for Phantom's cloak.
Small Curtain rod.
(2) Clothes hooks to hang cloak with curtain rod.

Step 1: Build Throne Seat Box and Back

Build a box for the seat portion of the throne. The width of the box should be wide enough so that a person can fit through the attached 2x4 vertical back supports, as shown in the photos. The box is made from 3/4-in. plywood for the top of the box, 2x4 frame, and 1/4-in. plywood for the sides.

Attach vertical 2x4s onto the seat box, with the height to allow the Phantom to lean back to exit the throne. Attach a piece of wood at the top to support the vertical 2x4s.

Step 2: Add Arms

Either build arms, or find an old chair to scavenge arms from, and firmly attach to the box and vertical back supports with 2-1/2-in. drywall screws. I used a reciprocating saw to remove the arms from the original chair.

Step 3: Add Back Side Panels

This is where the Phantom hides after disappearing. Determine how much space is needed to hide the Phantom behind the throne (e.g., 3 feet). Using this measurement as the width dimension, cut two sheets of 1/4-in. plywood; one for each side. The height of the plywood should be the height of the throne. The bottom of the plywood should be on, or very close to the floor so that nothing shows through the bottom. Attach a 2x4 to the top of each piece of plywood to firm up the plywood, and attach the 2x4s to the vertical 2x4 supports with 2-1/2-in. drywall screws.

Cover the opening at the back with black fabric.

Add 2x4 diagonal braces to the backs of the vertical 2x4s to prevent the throne from tipping backwards.

Step 4: Add Decorative Items

I attached plastic skulls to the ends of the arms to hide where the arms were cut off from the original chair. I also added plastic tubes as columns to hold plastic skulls. I cut off the arch from the back of the original chair and put it on top of the throne's back.

Add a false back to the throne. I used a couple of layers of black fabric because that is what I had available. You may want to try hanging chair pillows.

Step 5: Make Phantom's Cloak and Attach Hooks

Make a cloak for the Phantom to use to cover himself while in the throne (e.g., rectangular piece of moderately heavy material). Create a pocket in the cloak to insert a small curtain rod.

Attach hooks to the top of each of the vertical supports in the throne; these will hold the cloak's curtain rod.

Step 6: Add Magic

To enable the Phantom to move from his sitting position to behind the false back of the throne, I added two door pulls at the top of the two vertical 2x4 supports; the larger the door pull, the better. Using these handles is the key aspect to my design of the Phantom's throne. It gives the Phantom full control on how he exits the throne, making it safe.

The first two pictures above show the director testing out the prop. Here are the steps that the Phantom uses to perform this maneuver:

Sit on throne.
With two hands, pull cloak over head by holding the embedded curtain rod.
Hang cloak's curtain rod on hooks at top of seat back.
Drape cloak over throne arms, while simultaneously pulling feet onto seat; make sure cloak fully hides himself.
Grab the two handles behind the vertical 2x4 supports.
While holding onto the handles, walk backwards on seat, and then step off of the back of the throne seat.
Place mask on seat.
Straighten up the false back fabric.

Step 7: Conclusions

The most important aspect of this design is the use of handles behind the back of the throne seat. This gives the Phantom full control to support himself while walking off the back of the seat, which is safer than having the Phantom slide, or roll backwards off of the seat. The handles allow the Phantom to exit the throne smoothly, and quietly, which minimizes the chance of giving away the vanishing effect's secret.

The extended plywood sides allows the Phantom to hide behind the throne for the for the rest of the scene, without the throne needing to be by the wings (curtains) at the side of the stage. Proper lighting on the front of the throne, and no lighting at the back of the throne, can hide the extension behind the throne.

If this Instructable inspired you to make something, please write about it in the comments. I'd love to hear about it.

Have fun,

Barry