A Blog for the DYI Theatre Program!

Our opening night is coming soon!

Our budget is tight!

But wait! Let's use creativity and lots of ingenuity!

Let's design our play by thinking out of the box.

Some quick and simple scenic solutions by Mr. Lowell at the Sloan Theatre.



Monday, August 23, 2010

Stone Temple for "Children of Eden"

Click photos to enlarge:

The "Children of Eden" script calls for a scene at a location like Stonehenge in Act I. But our Director prefered setting the scene in a more exotic way, such as among the large heads of Easter Island.

EXPEDIENT SOLUTION:
So I found a construction supply company that carries what they call "flotation billets", which are giant styrofoam blocks used under diving platforms at lakes.

I bought four blocks, which were 8 feet long, by 2 feet wide, by 2 feet thick. I had the crew cut them up in the lobby, (where it is much easier to clean up the huge mess). I used a DeWalt cordless reciprocating saw to carve the styrofoam up like turkeys. Then the crew used manual saws to finish sculpting the details. Finally we covered them completely with cheesecloth and Sculpt-or-Coat for protection, and sprayed them with a heavy primer coat of latex as a flame retardant.

The effect worked very well and they were lightweight enough for the cast to carry them on and off stage easily.

I did not have room to store them anywhere in the theatre, so I traded them to a friend who owns a party rental store*. She uses some of them for a tropical paradise setting for corporate parties: http://www.brendascostume.com/hawaiian.html

*By the way, what I got in trade from Brenda's was an outstanding golden throne chair that I used as Gastone's "horned chair" in "Disney's Beauty and the Beast", on the right in the picture below, (click):

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