JCC

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!

Law Law Land was this year’s summer production by Gotta Sing Gotta Dance Vancouver, a musical theatre camp held at the JCC/NRT. It is produced once at the end of July, and once at the end of August, with different musical theatre students each time (3-show run). The July production had over 60 performers. I was contracted to design and build a versatile, lightweight, creative set, mostly working with the producer (the indefatigable Perry Ehrlich), but also the director and other choreographers.

The material of choice is 3/16 foamcore, because it is light and holds its shape reasonably well. It’s more expensive than plywood or MDF, but for this production it makes a lot of sense.