I’m doing a political comedy and one of the things people do in politics is walking districts. I have this twice in the play so far for different purposes in the plot. Now in real life this would require walking from house to house to house etc. Given simple budgets and limited stage size I’ve inverted this somewhat. Basically the characters who are supposed to be “walking” generally stay in center stage and the other people walk past them. (At one point I almost break the fourth wall when Betty comments that she has been walking and it seems like she hasn’t moved at all.)

Now the question is whether or not this inversion, of having the people who should be walking standing still and having the people who are generally standing still walking a workable solution; even with the references of “walking” made by the standing characters?

I seem to remember seeing a professional production of Fiddler on the Roof where they had a walking scene when they had to leave. I dimly recall this as being staged on a turntable with the turning speed about matching their walking speed.

As long as the people walking by the "walking characters" act as if they're standing still with their upper bodies, it would work.

Rotating pieces of the stage is pretty costly, especially in small theaters.

I don't think you have to worry about staging too much at this script-writing phase of the process.

but yeah, I think your idea could work in lots of different ways. Perhaps the people in the middle would mime walking. The people in the various houses could be moving past behind a short "wall" that hides their bodies from the waist down and also looks like their house (they could even be holding these bits), so all that is seen is their upper bodies, etc.), so something could be worked out. Or something completely different...

theatre is creative. The audience does have to work a bit more than in film, and is well-prepared to do so.

go for it.

jmho.