handyandrewblog

Annie Jr. Set Design and Build

VTT produced the musical Annie Jr. at the beginning of April. I was contracted to design and build the set. (Credits: Dir. K. Smith, Lights V. Bell, Costumes L. Meyers)

Our starting point was a 19-foot long set of arches that the director secured and stored at the school. This was to be the mansion and the only question was where would it go, and how would it look? I ended up making it a second level, intending to put the orchestra below, but eventually we just used the lower level for stair storage.

The NRT has limited wing space and no fly tower, so most things had to stay on the stage or be hidden just off-stage. I made 4 lightweight flats that were 5×8 feet to construct an orphanage and brick walls. They were made of foamcore, with wooden frames and legs.

That was the basic set – arches, stairs, and walls. There were many other set pieces needed for the various scene changes: starting with the beds. I was quite proud of these – I made 8 – all very lightweight and stackable. The challenge was how to keep them from sliding around when the kids were jumping from one to another; some rubber furniture feet helped.

Other fun projects/items were the laundry cart, lamppost, garbage can, fire hydrant, filing cabinet, Warbucks desk (which had to get cut lower eventually), and oval office flag.

A big challenge for me was fabric – I wanted to hide the mansion at the beginning of the show, but since it was 14 feet high, the 8-foot flats wouldn’t quite do the trick. So I made a curtain rod at the top of the mansion and hung a curtain from that, with a cityscape sewn on. It didn’t quite work for the director, but they came up with a good solution thanks to our amazing costume designer’s help, and we were able to keep the curtain. I also made some large black city skyline frames on the sides, which looked fine, but were not as shiny and shimmery under stage lights as the expensive fabric I stretched on them promised. Live and learn!

Here are a few more photos of the build/tech process:

Annie Scenes! Photos by A. Potts:

Photos by K. Balin:

All photos are copyrighted by their respective authors. Do not use or alter without permission.

Overall, it was a wonderful play. At the end, I was tired. And then I had to take away (most of) the set, and return the rentals, etc… it was time for a break.

Footloose Set Build

Footloose the musical is playing at Gallery 7 Theatre for the next couple of weeks. It’s a big show with a lot of colour, sound, hundreds(!) of costumes, and sweet moves. The set was built in a barely-heated shop in February during the two coldest weeks of the year, and then the big load-in happened last week, after the set designer finished painting.

Set Design is by Hayley Bamford; director is Kate Muchmore Woo.

The main set piece is a large stationary railway bridge mid-upstage with the orchestra visible behind it. A large number of wheeled pieces come on and off to set up the large number of scenes. Building focused on tables, platforms, a house, and so on…

The 32-foot bridge is very solid. Some of the bracing/support is hidden. The forced perspective shot posted elsewhere in a set build group got me in a bit of trouble, with a concerned designer even calling in unsolicited from another country…because it looks like a 4×4 unsupported span, but that is not the case. (I just think it’s a cool shot.)

Hayley designed and executed a beautiful set, and I was proud to help make it happen. Everybody cut… footloose!

The following Gallery 7 production photos were taken by Dianna Lewis:

Custom cabinets for canvasses with 24 drawers

Stan and Tilly hired me to make a couple of custom cabinets. They were quite specific in that each drawer needed to hold eight 8×10 paintings. We settled on 2 identical cabinets and eventually I got to work:

Each cabinet has 10 2″ drawers and 2 larger drawers.

They then had me take the cabinets to a paint shop, which did a wonderful job with a smooth tough finish, much better than I can do! After which I brought them to the home, put the 48 handles on and installed all the drawers. They turned out very nice!

Custom Mesh Box

Sharon requested a box to hide some plugs and wires.

I made a 3 sided box out of MDF and painted it, and stapled some mesh in there.

Irena’s Vow Set Build (and acting!)

Irena’s Vow is now playing at Gallery 7 until February 1, 2025. The set was designed by Sheldon Jeans, and the play is directed by Stephen Wilhite. I built the set over a few days during the Christmas break, and Sheldon started painting/set dec.-ing soon after.

Personally, I have a strong connection to this show, as I am also a late-addition actor, playing the role of Lazar Hallar. It has been a privilege to be welcomed into the cast, and to play the part of a Jew hiding in the cellar of a German officer during World War 2. The show is quite an intense and emotional ride for all of the actors, and naturally there is a special bonding there.

Here are a few photos of the set build. I hope to add some production photos as well at a later date.

and now… a few Production Photos! (I’m the guy in the hat and tie) Photography by Dianna Lewis:

Parfumerie Set Design and Build

Parfumerie is playing at MCA (Gallery 7) until the end of this week. Here are some design, build, and set shots.

Set was made to be quite modular as it had to be struck twice during our rehearsal/run.

(Directed by Sarah Green, Lighting by Gabe Kirkley, Props by Madison Willoughby, Costumes by Des Hale)

Design

Build. Quite a custom piece with a few stock parts. Had quite a bit of help from several volunteers.

Set photos (during rehearsal). Such a fun little show with a lot of depth to the story. This script inspired the movie You’ve Got Mail. Definitely a team effort to pull off the set!

Prince Caspian Set Design and Build

Prince Caspian played at Gallery 7 Theatre recently. Here are a few pictures of the set design and build process.

It started with a meeting with the director and other designers, reading the script, and coming up with some sketches and ideas which eventually formed the set design.

The forest was built with several different kinds of trees (including by the actors themselves, which were creativily portrayed by the costume designer). I borrowed an idea from Youtube about making the tree canopy out of PVC pipe. I had some scrap ABS pipe and scrounged some other pipes elsewhere; the biggest cost was the 3000 zip ties. The flexible trunks were made of flexible drainage pipe and the big moveable tree was a regular set piece on a riser.

There were also the usual set piece suspects – boxes and furniture…

sheet vinyl flooring painted and clear coated

The big tree was a big undertaking. My dad framed it and I covered it with coroplast and spray foam and a few fibreoptic lights.

Load in took awhile, mostly to hang everything from the fly system at Abby Arts. The techs were great.

And then the lighting designer got to work his magic!

Set by Andrew Potts, Lighting by Ken Hildebrandt, Directed by Gabe Kirkley, Costumes by Kelsey Cleave, Props by Dianna Lewis. For Gallery7Theatre.com.

Dollars and Nonsense set design/build

Back in the summer I designed and built a lightweight set for Gotta Sing! Gotta Dance!, a theatre camp held in Vancouver. They put on an impressive musical twice, once for each group of students, after just a few days of rehearsing.

This set had to be stored in an upstairs room between camps, so it had to be simple and lightweight. I was introduced to 3/16″ foamcore and used it as the main material. I was able to fit the entire set into the back of my pickup truck (not including items like the desk and chairs which the director sourced).

Production watermarked photos by Hannes Photo: www.hannesphoto.com

Produced by Perry Elhrich; Directed by Meghan Anderssen; Lighting Design by Victoria Bell, Set Design by Andrew Potts; Projections by Meghan Anderssen

The play Dollars and Nonsense has many references to a certain popular board game. My design capitalized on this and the play is set in Atlantic City so there are some hints of the boardwalk etc. as well.

Foamcore is fairly rigid but it wasn’t quite enough to just sort of stand up by itself. Also I learned that both sides have to be painted, or there will be a lot of bowing.

The venue was the Norman Rothstein Theatre at the Jewish Community Center in Vancouver. This was the third time I had worked in this space.

It was a good experience, and I enjoyed watching the end result of the talented staff and students–colourful, musical, professional, and fun!

Custom Porch Enclosure

Sandee had been talking for a few years about enclosing her porch. Other projects came first; and then she got a quote or two but they were quite high. I wasn’t really up to taking on a large project like this so I didn’t, until one day I said OK, I’ll draw something up… and the rest is history. The price was really a fraction of what others were quoting… surely not as professional, but I thought it worked out pretty well in the end.

Before: The 2 biggest complaints were the wind (it gets very windy in the winter especially) and the afternoon blinding sunlight. Rain and snow were also considerations. Every season, furniture has to be stored out of the weather, etc.

My proposal was to add a little bit of roofing over the open stair area and then enclose all of it with wood and glass panels.

After we ironed out the details, I set to work adding 4×4 posts for roof and doorway framing:

Next I started building frames out of douglas fir 2x2s and 3/8 fir plywood, all primed with primer/sealer, and painted both sides with exterior paint.

It was slow and steady work, custom making each part, filling, sanding, painting and installing it, but I slowly made my way around the perimeter.

This was followed by exterior doors, glass, and hundred of mitred sticks (framing trim). (Please do not ask me to cut and paint another stick in my lifetime)

Painting took the longest of any part of the job, I think. I’m not super fond of painting but if I have to do it, I do it!

Turned out pretty nice! Took a big chunk of the summer too.

Window re-framing

Jake asked me to fix up a front bay window that had weathered for many years. There were some large gaps due to rotting wood, plus it just looked bad in a few areas.

While I was chiseling off some of the wooden trim, I cracked a pane. That sucked, but it wasn’t too hard to replace, and luckily Abby Glass was able to cut a new piece for me that day. I was told that it might fog up in the future, but as several other panes were already fogging, I wasn’t too concerned.

I filled gaps with spray foam and cut a new curved shelf and otherwise fixed things up as best as I know how.

(almost) Good as new 🙂