Loading in and wrapping up the set for Bonnie & Clyde

I haven't blogged in a while.  Some of it is because I have been busy on a number of fronts. Some of it is because there hasn't been to show.  Not that I haven't produced anything, but I have been making mostly little items and there weren't a lot of pictures to show.

In the shop, we fabbed a small table for the hideout, the bars for the jail cell, and the rolling piece that is the counter at the American Cafe on one side and the judge's bench on the other.

The past few days, however, a lot has changed!




Because the theater was empty since July, I was able to get started installing earlier than usual.

Last Friday, we took a trailer of parts to the theater.  Those parts included the car, a couple of sections of wood fence, and the components for the gas station.  The shop looked almost empty after those things were gone.  It hasn't been empty since right before I pulled in the Nissan truck to begin cutting it apart on April 1!

The gas station, while in the shop, didn't look like much.  It is a slightly bizarre geometry, as though I took the Barrow's original station and lopped off a corner of the canopy.  It wasn't until it went together on stage and we stepped back, that if made sense.




To get it into the theater, of course, I had to take it back apart because the freaking place has NO access for anything bigger than 3 feet wide!  That is probably the suckiest part of working on this stage...followed closely by hanging lights above the stadium seating without catwalks overhead. That's for a different discussion...

Sunday at noon, Melanie and I started by reassembling the upper portion of the station and adding the roof panels.  we then attached two legs and tilted it up. Leaning it against the wall, we could get the third leg under it and brace it into place.  I pulled the black masking legs into place and we teaked the location of the station so that it butted the maskings.  We then shot it to the floor and added braces to anchor it.  I will bring my box of black fabric and we will mask the rear two legs, so that it appears to float against black, consistent with the dreamy concept of the staging.


I placed the gas pump and a couple of old car wheels under the roof and it started to take shape as a gas station.  Finally I added an antique light fixture like used to don the old filling stations. Got it from my very good friend, eBay. The station gets a few more accents...the post that you see needs to be wrapped and painted out,  HB Barrow hand-lettered on the side, and a large Coca Cola sign on the roof.

The next thing that we tackled was the sheriff's office. I needed to base paint this section so that it could be finish painted when I bring Gary and Sharon to the theater on Thursday.  The paint had to be dry in time for Sunday evening's rehearsal, so we needed to get it done. We pulled out the brick walls that we had saved after RENT last spring.  We reassembled them far left, leaving just enough room behind them for cast to cross behind.  Since the band is going upstage, center of this wall, I needed to leave them as much room as possible. So, the masking legs on this side are actually flipped up and behind the walls.

It went together fairly easily. There was remarkably little damage after striking and storing it for 6 months. I brought the "front door" back that I had made for "Night of the Living Dead" a year ago and it becomes the sheriff's door.  Once the walls were up, we filled the Wagner paint sprayer with dark gray paint and 20 minutes later, Kathleen's wonderful graffiti from RENT was GONE!  :(

While we were spraying, we put a base coat on another brick panel that I salvaged from another show. It will get repainted into the sepia color scheme and repurposed into a representation of the front of the beauty shop.

The last thing that we needed to do was to get the car reassembled and in place.  Again, because this facility has no door wider than 3 feet nor taller than 7 feet, I had to make the car as small as possible. Resting on casters mounted to the back of the seat, it is 83 inches to the tip of the grill. So, the bumper had to be removed.  From the bottom of the legs to the top of the hood is 38 inches, so windshield and hood ornament had to come off as well to get it into the building.

With it still up on its back, we added skids to the underside of the legs to bring the height up 1 1/2". We mounted the two front wheels in the fenders, then tipped it over and slid it into place.  Then we reapplied the mirrors, windshield and bumper.

The last task for the day was to place the two sections of fence.

As simple as these seem to be, they are actually quite interesting.  One of the premises of the design is that the car faces the audience. We will be painting road on the floor that appears to run right into the center section of seats.  So, the fence sections splay as though they are running along the sides of the road. In addition, when I made them, I used "forced perspective" to make them appear to recede into the background.So, they are 48" tall nearer the audience and only 42" tall upstage.  All of this makes it look as though the road is running right into the audience.  The relationship of the road and fence to the gas station makes it look as though the road runs right long side of the station.

I will be adding a telephone pole upstage right of the right fence with "wires" stringing out toward the audience. This should finish the optical illusion and make the set feel very dynamic.

Lastly, I temporarily used an extension cord to test the  lights on the filling station.

Later this week, the painters will get in and paint the road on the floor and all of the brick work.  Next Saturday, we will hang the last two facade panels and erect the telephone pole and the set should be in good shape.  With a little luck, Sunday we begin lights!!!!

More after next weekend...R