Theatre in the Country is now presenting The Spitfire Grill, a simple (smaller cast), beautiful bluegrass style musical.
Here are a few build photos:
We had a bit of a slow start in the summer months, with just a few volunteers every Saturday. But we made steady progress. There was an upper deck with some deck stairs that needed to be placed just right.
(Set Design by Reg Parks; Directed by Kate Muchmore Woo, Paint by Lori Rippin.)
As we got closer to opening we had more helpers and more detail oriented work got done! It really started to come together. I really like the muslin tree screens (painted by Jenny Whims, who also painted the Grill sign).
Screengrab from tech week, with some funky lighting!
Screenshot
Here are some production photos. Do not alter or use without permission. They are taken by and copyright Rod Shearing:
I designed and built the set for Shamilton, which was Gotta Sing Gotta Dance’s show in July and August this year. Here are some build photos and a few load-in photos as well.
In the past I have constructed sets for this company out of foamcore, but this time I tried coroplast (about 20 sheets). It’s similar in weight but has slightly better structure/warping. However it doesn’t take paint quite as well. But overall I was happy with it.
The first thing was a large Tim Horton’s fly with neon lettering. Made of plywood, cardboard, and a metal pipe.
The next fun project was a Curved Flat (A flurve?). I thought it was kind of genius because it stands up on its own and is very lightweight, and can be flipped around. Of course it’s not that useful as a flat because it’s hard to store 🙂
Train cars, map of Canada, steering wheels…
Letters, banner, maple leaves, backdrop flat
Then the fun/really creative stuff! I painted a pile of donuts for the Tim Hortons scene. It looked good enough to eat! I also had fun with the beaver, geese, and moose. (These set pieces all disappeared at the end of the show – good enough to take home I guess..)
There were 65 students in the July camp and 70 in the August camp. It’s quite a crowd when they’re all singing and dancing at the same time! The set seemed to work well with the play. Apparently the Tim Hortons fly got applause when it came down during at least one show!
Yes, my handyman business is closed… but I realized early on in summer that I didn’t have quite enough theatre work to pay the bills… so took on a select few side jobs for just a few people I have worked for before. (I also did work on 2 sets which will get posted later)
Did a little bit of finishing work for Byron:
Did a little column re-wrap job for my shop landlords – only when I took off the old fascia, I discovered that the post itself was very rotten too – I don’t know how the roof didn’t fall other than it must be bolted to the house – so I replaced the post. Then I checked the other posts and another one was even more rotten so I replaced that one too. Finally wrapped everything.
I had promised Ron awhile ago that I would make some time in the summer for some custom shelf work. It took all summer but I managed to get it done! There was also some shiplap and baseboards. Fortunately my customers were willing to do all the painting themselves!
Lastly there were some tables at a cafe in Vancouver nextdoor to the Norman Rothstein Theatre where I load in sets twice a year. I re-laminated the tables, but then the job kept growing into re-laminating bars, painting all sorts of things, and new cabinet doors. Mostly they just wanted to brighten it up.
TIC kept me very busy during my weekends in May (plus a few other days during the week too) overseeing the build for The Producers, a Mel Brooks Musical. (Now playing at Theatre in the Country) Here are some photos of the build plus some production photos. It is a very funny and will done Broadway Musical. Just be aware of some of the audience advisories before you go in!
There were 2 or 3 other productions happening on the stage during the build which complicated things a bit. A highschool production of Clue was the major one, so we helped to get that one going kind of at the same time (and Reg the set designer had some clever ways of combining the two sets in many ways). Also the TIC Academy had 2 shows near the beginning, so I helped get their backdrops for The Little Mermaid and Grease ready, but otherwise I wasn’t needed.
I’ve only been working with TIC for a few months but I’m starting to get to know where things are, how things work, and who some of the regular volunteers are. Much thanks to Darren, Nicola, Simon, Robbie, John, and Zander for their expert help with the set! Many of the cast members helped too, especially Joyce with much of the painting… as our regular painter wasn’t available for this show. Jenny from Props also lent us a lot of support with painting.
(Director: Dann Wilhelm; Set Designer: Reg Parks; Lighting: Alex House; Costumes: Kevin Kreisz)
Here are a few official production photos: credit/copyright Shannon Pauls:
Gallery 7 recently closed their production of A Few Good Men. Here are some pictures of the design, build, and finished set.
Design: this set felt sort of easy. The layout was fairly clear in the director’s head and I was able to translate that into drawings early on, which saved a lot of time. It was also a simple, abstract set with zero complicated set changes – just the movement of tables and chairs fluidly throughout the show.
However one thing that was a necessity with this set was the quality. Sometimes as the builder I do get away with some “shoddy” work: handles showing in the ends of risers, beaten up plywood covered with six layers of paint, etc. But this play is about Marines, and they don’t tolerate shoddiness… so I spent a lot of time considering how to make the risers appear to be suspended in mid-air–it took some extra construction and masking–and just generally being careful to make everything look crisp and clean.
It also required a fair number of chairs, and I wanted them all to match – so when I found a style that we liked on FB Marketplace, I bought as many as I could (nine). We also wanted 3 matching lightweight tables. So I bought them secondhand and modified them all to be the same size, colour, and style. And of course going with this exacting theme, they all needed to be refinished and stained the same colour!
Once I had the furniture ready, I gave it to the cast to use, and focused on the columns and fence, which were fun artsy projects!
I was able to taper the ionic columns using clear corrugated roofing. Of course there was no way they would meet in the back, but we didn’t need to see the backs. The toppers were a combination of dollar store plates, plywood, cereal box cardboard, and foam.
The fence was plastic fencing, PVC pipe, rubber barbed wire, and homemade razor wire (galvanized wire and duct tape). I wish I could have made the fence look taller or more imposing, but I was restricted partly by budget, and also by the fact that my research of Gitmo’s fencing actually looked pretty much like what I made.
Then it was time for load in and a long day assembling and bracing risers. We had a few great helpers!
A few shots of the set. Set design (c) Andrew Potts. Directed by Ken Hildebrandt. Lighting by Nigel Brooke.
The following photographs are official G7 production photographs, all taken by and copyright Dianna Lewis. They may not be altered or used for any commercial purposes. They show the various looks of the set with the actors using it. Other credits are listed above, plus costumes by Kelsey Cleave, hair and makeup by Sara Mayfield, and props by Dianna Lewis.
The Verdict played at Theatre in the Country in April. It was a fairly simple set build, I think I was there maybe 5 days, as we were able to repurpose much of the set from Charley’s Aunt and spent more time on painting and set dec than new building. The main 3 scenes were a bar, a courtroom, and an office.
Build photos:
Some production photos (c) by Shannon Pauls:
Director: Simon Challenger; Set Designer: Reg Parks; Set Painter: Lori Rippin
It was a well-done show, great characters and acting.
Anastasia closed recently at Gallery 7 Theatre. Here are a few build pics. It was a large set with lots of locations; despite being enhanced by projections there was still a large set stretching across the stage.
Set was designed by Hayley Bamford and was built by me, with help from several volunteers.
Load in Day came and went and we got everything together and painted. The 11-foot high truck with curved stairs attached worked better than expected. Re-painting the 12- and 18-foot high screens took a lot of my time (to help the projections pop better).
The following official production photos were taken by Dianna Lewis and are copyrighted. They may not be altered or used for commercial purposes. (Credits: Directed by Kate Muchmore Woo, Lighting and Projections by Gabe Kirkley, Costumes by Shannon Tauber, Set Design by Hayley Bamford, Choreography by Corinna Richmond, Props by Becki Cormier)
Here is a video I made for Gallery 7 about the process of carving custom foam balusters for Anastasia railings. Most of it focuses on the work of my dad, Chris, who did the lion’s share of the work. (Note: set design and painting was done by Hayley Bamford.)
I recently designed and built the set for VTT Centre Stage’s production of The Little Mermaid Jr.
scene from the set design document
Here are a bunch of build photos!
The first main thing to build for rehearsals were the stairs. There are 4 of them and I am quite proud of them. They are wavy, interlocking, and fit together with a wavy platform as well. Their main purpose was to give levels for the many performers. But they were versatile as they could be used for the sides of the ship, and the various palaces.
I then made a large rock on casters. (I also provided 5 other lighter rocks that I had made for Anne)
The next project was a custom styrofoam arch and a ship’s hull. I used expanding spray foam to glue styrofoam to a 2×2 & luan frame. I then carved the styrofoam with a circular saw.
I modified the boat I made for Anne into a row-able boat. Dave and I went fishing with it, in the workshop. Later the school requested I make it higher because the actor’s knees were visible moving (it was foot propelled). I did make it higher, but felt it did ruin the effect a bit because it was so high.
Next I worked on Ursula’s cauldron. I made it out of a bucket, chicken wire and paper mache. It was quite fragile and large and ultimately the school asked me for another smaller one because this one was awkward to use, and falling apart a bit… I ended up passing it on to another school and built the smaller one as requested, which worked quite well. I stuck purple lights inside and a battery powered fog machine and got a very cool effect.
A few other little things – some jail bars made of crooked branches, a half shell, reeds and columns…
And last but not least, the piece de resistance, the vinyl floor!
This was my 3rd time painting this large chunk of sheet vinyl in the school gym. On Friday night I did the base coat and all the texturing, let it dry overnight, and on Saturday I put a clear coat on it and prepared it for rolling up on Sunday when the cast was back. I was going for a sandy ocean floor but I added some “wavy light” lines with my spray gun, which seemed a tad bold at the time but I think it really worked out well.
What generally works for me when buying floor paint, is that I go to my local pro paint store (Cloverdale Paint where I rarely shop because their paint is so expensive, but it’s also very good quality and I know it will stick nicely to the vinyl). They usually have a variety of 5 gallon pail “mistints” that are very reasonably priced. I buy a few other 1 gallon mistints and mix my own base colour and go from there. In this case I was quite worried that my mixed base colour turned out too pink, so I added quite a bit of texture over it, and it turned out very good.
And then finally it was load-in day! Due to the nature of the set design, there was no large structure to build on site! So it was a matter of laying down the floor, painting the seams, and sliding all the set pieces around while V built lights. I also repainted part of the stairs. (I should mention I didn’t paint much of the set at all actually – a parent volunteer did most of it and did a fantastic job).
More production photos to come, hopefully! But here is the last scene with the kids (all 70 of them!) before we took it all down:
Gallery 7 Theatre recently presented a play called Glory by Tracey Power. On the surface it is a hockey play about a very succesful women’s team that played in Ontario in the 1930’s. It has a variety of themes, however; and is a different type of play than many I’ve seen. I was tasked with building the (simple) set and as our set designer was out of commission at the time, I also took on the painting and a few of the projections.
Director is Gabe Kirkley, and set designer is Jeff Kiers.
Here are some photos from the build.
joining 2 12-foot sonotubes with a smaller sonotube “sleeve”
As you can see it is basically a hockey rink with some furniture. A few more photos once painting started:
blessed with a dry sunny day in January to put a base coat of paint on the vinyl
And a few photos from tech week:
taping the seam in the “ice”Adding some texture to the paint with a mopadding a semi gloss floor coating to make the “ice” shiny and slippery. needed 2 coats
The “ice” turned out better than I expected. We used cheap sheet vinyl sourced from our local End of the Roll. I painted the bottom of it a light grey (it still looked bright white under lights). Then added some other colours to make it look dirtier, a couple coats of clear coat to protect it… it lasted the whole run but definitely got scuffed up by the hockey sticks and boots.
Official Production Photos, taken by Dianna Lewis are below. They are copyrighted and may not be altered or used for commercial purposes. [Credits: Director/Projections: Gabe Kirkley; Set Design: Jeff Kiers; Set build/scenic painting/sign projections: Andrew Potts, Props: Dianna Lewis, Choreography: Lauren Clift; Costumes: Dani Dejong; Lighting: Nigel Brooke; Hair and Make-up: Amber Bergeron]
handyandrew.ca 