One of the special effects I designed for Theatreworks’ 1992 production of Into the Woods was built into the witch’s light-emitting cane. Many times throughout the action the witch uses her cane to “flash her victims” as she casts a spell. To avoid having to reload a flash-paper device of some sort, I investigated other ways to produce flashes of light. Ultimately, I discovered that a small commercially available photo flash mounted at one end of a solid acrylic rod would generate what can be best described as a “lump of light” which travels down the rod.

FIGURE 1: THE FLASHING CANE (DRESSING OMITTED)

As the light source, I used a Phoenix® flash unit measuring 2½″ × 32½″ × 1″, bought at a local camera supply shop. I glued the flash unit to the end of a 3′-long ⅞″-diameter clear acrylic rod with warm-water-soluble Friendly Plastic®, disguising the unit as part of the cane’s handle. In dressing the assembled handle, I was careful to preserve access to the flash unit’s battery compartment so that we could replace the two AA batteries periodically. I also wired a small momentary pushbutton switch into the flash trigger circuit and mounted the switch to the cane’s shaft at a convenient location.

In a dimly lit “woods” setting, the cane produced an impressive effect each time it flashed during the show’s 40-performance run. It also took a lot of abuse without needing repair, except that I had to expand the batteries’ spring contacts from time to time: they tended to flatten a bit whenever the unit was inadvertently dropped.