The show sold out all four nights and both lead actors are pursuing acting careers in college. This particular photo became the centerpiece of our "King and I" poster in the lobby.
But my "Gold Rosettes" are merely a tiny background touch that helped make the scene appear more opulent. The cool thing is that this expensive-looking effect was created at almost zero cost! And it was fun!
(Click photos to enlarge them a little).
EXPEDIENT SOLUTION:
To me, it was a "no brainer" and one of the first design elements I decided to do as production began on "The King and I" in 2007. I knew I needed some golden embellishments for the royal palace...and things like the bottom of a 2-liter Coke bottle is a interesting geometric shape that catches my eye. So I immeadiately concocted a plan, and asked the cast and crew to start bringing in empty bottles.
Step one was to gather dozens of 2-liter bottles. This was harder than you think! Below are the ones we emptied during a Saturday afternoon "Parent Blitz" - a volunteer workday for prop and costume construction.
Then the fun part! We used a DeWalt cordless reciprocating saw with a fine-toothed blade to cut the bottoms off all the bottles. (The tops were put in the recycling bin).
Next, we spray painted all the bottoms with glossy Gold spray paint. I ended up buying dozens of cans of gold paint for the "King and I" set! Then, as you can see below, we pre-drilled all the rosettes with 3" drywall screws in the center.
I covered the facia of the platforms with a regal purple velour that I got free from the stage curtain factory in town. Then I trimmed out the top edges of each step with gold colored metal strips from Home Depot. (These are the strips intended for strengthening the corners of walls when they apply plaster). The bottles are held onto the steps with just the one 3" drywall screw in the center.
The creative part was to decide which alternating pattern of rosettes would look the best from the audience. I tried several. One pattern resembled Morse Code! But I went with a semetrical repeating pattern that mimicked my diamond pattern in my gold floor paint. If you look closely in the next two photos, you can see that the period floor design transfers right up the steps using the Coke rosettes:
The finished product worked quite well. The fact that the audience was 30 feet away in our 600 seat proscenium theatre helped the effect work even better. The gold pieces did not read at all as "Coke bottles" to the audience, but rather, just tiny golden decorations in a very refined Thai palace.
Below is Tuptim in a dramatic moment. (Click to enlarge).
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