DESIGNS & BUILDS
HATS, MASKS, PUPPETS & PROP FABRICATION
COSTUME BUILDS
SOLVING A TRICKY DESIGN PROBLEM
In The Heights poses a particularly tricky design problem. A major plot point at the climax of the show is the reveal of a portrait of the beloved Abuela Claudia on the bodega's gate. There's no way to fake those gates, and with a TD who was leaving the school mid-production, we opted to rent a set.
The portrait that came with the set obviously looked nothing like our actor, and by the time we heard back from the rental shop that no re-painting could happen, we were beginning dress rehearsals.
I took a photo of the actor in costume, and experimented around with digital conversions to a more painterly look until I had something I liked.
Fortunately, our local print shop was excited to help us with this weird request, and in a matter of hours, they made an enormous sticker of the image. Using utility knives and a lot of patience, we sliced the portrait into strips and affixed them to the grate, which allowed the grate to roll up and down with ease.
The reveal worked as intended in the show, and we finished up by adding some erasable spray chalk streaks to cover the image painted on the door.
Hmm...not quite Grafiti Pete's style...
Our actor was very happy with the finished project.
The big reveal opening night.
DIFFERENT SHOWS, SAME SET (plus some paint)
When I saw that the Theater Production class and the introduction to Performance class were scheduled to perform on consecutive weekends, I began to plan. Whille the first production called for a suburban home, the second was set in a turn of the twentieth century town square.
With a little paint and set dressing, we were able to complete the changeover in only a few hours.
REUSE & REPURPOSE TO SAVE TIME AND MONEY!
With another tight turn-around, we took the risk to repaint our snowy Maine groundrow into an improbable coral reef in support of an immersive ceramics exhibit.