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.)
Tag: set design
The Little Mermaid set design & build
I recently designed and built the set for VTT Centre Stage’s production of The Little Mermaid Jr.
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:
Set Build: Glory
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.
As you can see it is basically a hockey rink with some furniture. A few more photos once painting started:
And a few photos from tech week:
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 to come….
Anne (of Green Gables) Set Design and Build
Anne recently closed a successful run at Gallery 7 Theatre in Abbotsford in November. Set design started in the summer, and building happened in October. Below are some pictures of the model I made. The concept was simple: a block house, a tree, and a truck and flat that moved on/off in front of a sharktooth scrim.
New this year, I was asked to make a window for marketing photos as well as for patrons to take selfies with. I asked one of our volunteers, Steve, to make a sliding window, and then I build a small stand for it:
Then I started the “real” build…
My volunteer, Linda, helped a lot those first few weeks as we built and painted our way through Avonlea.
My dad, Chris, was kind enough to help with some special effects – we had some motorized wagon wheels and a motorized “sinking” boat. He also helped build a floor and a roof:
More building…
Chris, Rachel, and Dayton were a big help on a chilly paint day:
The train schedule was a fun little detail to add:
And then it was load-in day! Always appreciate help on this full day!
Here are a few photos from tech week – lighting was starting to build their cues:
Opening Night came! Can you spot the outline of Green Gables behind the scrim?
More official company photos:
Photos below are copyrighted; please do not alter them or use them for other works. Photos by Dianna Lewis Photography. (Set by Andrew Potts, Directed by Nelly Fargeon, Lighting by Ken Hildebrandt, Costumes by Vicki Bolan, Hair and Makeup by Avrey JantzKrahn, Props and some set dec by Dianna Lewis)
Simple plywood stands to hold foamcore 2D set pieces (flats)
This is mostly for my own reference, but maybe you can use it too. I build sets every summer for Gotta Sing Gotta Dance and they like to use foamcore set pieces (ie “flats”) because they are so lightweight and easy to manoeuvre.
The problem with 3/16″ foam core is that it doesn’t quite stand up straight on its own and it needs a frame (when standing higher than 4 feet, anyway). So most of my time is spent building lightweight frames for the foamcore to be zap-strapped to.
However when the foam core piece is 4 feet high or less, it can be held up with very little effort. I made some wooden blocks that worked quite well for quite a few pieces. Here they are:
I cut a scrap piece of 3/4 plywood into the odd shape above. The slot is for the foam core to fit snugly in. The angle of the slot is not 90 degrees – it is slanted back slightly (1 or 2 degrees) so that the foam core rests mostly on the back (taller) side.
I then glued+stapled a vertical stick to help with rigidity. Then zap strapped the stick to the foamcore (yes, you can sometimes see it protrude through the front if you look for it)
The zap straps just slide off the sticks if you want to remove the bases for transport. You have a set piece light enough to pick up with one hand, that stands up by itself.
Bonus tip: when painting foamcore, always paint both sides, or you get major warpage.
Bonus tip #2: foamcore is generally more expensive than plywood of the same thickness. But it can be ordered in bulk in 4×8 sheets from your local printshop for some savings.
“Law Law Land” Set design and Build
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.
I spent a week plus in the workshop cutting, painting, and building pieces. Here are some build pictures:
I don’t have any pictures from the show (yet) but here are some rehearsal shots:
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.
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!
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!
Seussical Set Design & Build
I was asked to design and build the set for Seussical, produced by VTT at the Norman and Annette Rothstein Theatre for their Spring Musical. It was an interesting challenge. I started designing around Christmasstime when I had some free head space. I came up with something like this:
And then when the time came to build, I made some set pieces on casters, and a stump:
Then some 2D trees; and painted the rented vinyl floor with the director’s vision:
Next I worked on the staging and some larger static set pieces:
I spent some time fire-retarding some things that would be hung close to the hot lights: paper mache stairs, and clouds. I self-tested samples of both the plywood and the paper mache to see how they would handle flame. They both seemed to survive 10 seconds of a blowtorch 2 inches away, and the samples that were treated did burn slower. (the one on the left) Both pieces self-extinguished, which was reassuring…
Then it was time for load-in! Parent and venue helpers were great!
There were a few fixes and changes after that but mostly things worked well.
The lighting design by Victoria Bell was incredible. In fact it added so much colour that the director decided to repaint some of the coloured set pieces to the off-white of the stage, as it was a bit too much to take in at times (especially with the colourful costumes too!) It was a good decision and balanced things out. Basic painting was done by myself, but most detail and colour was by the director and parent volunteers.
It was a wonderful show; superbly directed by Keri Smith and with great tech, stage management, acting, choreo, singing, band, costumes, etc, etc. It was my first exposure to Seussical; I do enjoy the silliness, as well as the way some important themes rise up.
photos by Galit Mishaal; Directed by Keri Smith; Costumes by Laura Meyers; Lighting by Victoria Bell; Choreo by Nicole Stevens; Set Design by Andrew Potts
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