Once every two years, the secondary musical overtakes our lives. In the past I've been heavily involved in costumes, but as our Home Ec teacher has now found her feet in this area, I've moved on to sets and props.
This year's offering was 'Singing In The Rain'.
I was delighted to hear that the backdrops were all going to be projections which came 'with' the licence, but I still needed to source all the onstage furniture and props. Initially I was encouraged by the fact that one of our lovely amateur musical societies had done the show a couple of years ago so I thought I could get everything I need from them. It wasn't to be. They had dismantled most of the props and sets but were able to offer me a replica '20s movie camera, a sound desk and a 20's microphone.
I got to work creating some of the items on the extensive 'props' list.
First up was 1920s style press cameras.
I started with cardboard boxes and Pringles containers!
The producers desk also required 'Awards'. I checked on faux Oscar statues online but they were all about 20cm tall which would NOT do...so I found some 'craft shapes' for $1.00 a pop, chopped a few up and mounted the @ symbol (for Academy award...obviously!), sprayed them gold and voila! Cheap trophies.
The cameras were progressing.
Next up, we needed a bush for the film crew to hide a microphone in.
'Talk into the bush Lena!"
Hmmm. Artificial bushes were expensive so....I bought a lot of random greenery, some pool noodles, recycled an old plastic pot from my garden and.....
Hmmmmmm too thin. Back to ebay for more greenery!
Meanwhile, more cameras.
We also had to source furniture, a large imposing desk for the Producer and a sofa for the infamous 'Good Morning' song. My dear Partner In Crime from Kidzone at church spent a long morning with me, collecting items I had sourced off Marketplace. Two more things ticked off for the princely sun of $90. Win.
Back at the ranch, I needed a megaphone. I guess I could have asked around but I found this at the cheap shop.
It was a 'hanging' pot of the sort you use on a vertical garden. A pair of pliers and a tin snip and I was on my way. Add some cardboard and black spray paint...voila!
What next? Ah. The dummy. Essential for the 'Make 'Em Laugh' number...here was the source material.
OK. That can't be too hard surely? More pool noodles and a bag of stuffing and......
She's still sitting outside our offices at school, now dressed in a spangly vest and tap shoes!
Meanwhile, I'd contacted the other amateur company who'd assured me they could lend me things, to discover they'd lent the 1920s movie camera to another company!! This is what they'd let go...
Two weeks out and I now had to create this! Of course I was on the phone straight away to Kidzone Partner in Crime who is also a VERY fine carpenter. 'Can you build me something like this tripod?' I asked, sending him the following source material....
The following morning I received this reply....
"Will this do?"
GASP!!!!! It was perfect! I threw together some cake tins, a cardboard
box, more Pringles containers and a few other oddments to create this....
It was okay.
NEEEEXXXXXTTTTT
Oh yes. The cake!
So in the story, Cathy jumps out of a cake so that Don Lockwood can make fun of her for being so high and mighty about becoming a serious actress. She gets angry and throws a piece of cake at him, which ends up in Lena's face...and so the plot develops.
Me: Are you sure we need a 'cake she can pop out of'? Couldn't we just reuse the normal sized cake from Freaky Friday?
Director: No she REALLY needs to jump out of it
Me; But there's no room backstage for a full sized cake she can jump out of...
Director: Pleeeeeease.
Thus began the week long attempt to create a cake...
I started with hula hoops and foam, the idea being that she could come on inside the cake and drop it to 'appear' out of the cake.
Things got very rushed and I ended up hand sewing the fabric over the top to create 'icing'.
This was a laborious task indeed and I only managed to get one photo...of a crew member inside the cake...photographed from the back. Oh well.
It needed another hula hoop at the bottom and some more lining but it was only on stage for less than 30 secs and I'd run out of time. It did the job.
Later, back at school I was describing to my class of Year 8s how difficult it had been making the cake. I explained how I had to cut the hula hoops and rejoin them at different lengths and then hand sew the fabric over the hoops.
"But why didn't you sew the fabric flat and then thread it on to the hoops? You'd already cut them!" said Mr 13 and a half, chronic work avoider and thorn in my side.
**************crickets ***********crickets **************crickets
Blinking kid will be an engineer. I'm sure of it!
And so we hit the stage. The show was a great success with audiences adoring the slapstick humour and beautiful costumes designed (and pretty much single handedly sewn) by our Home Ec teacher.
Here you can see one of the chairs (used in 'Moses Supposes') which the students spun, flipped twirled and stood upon. I had found them on the school building site where the builders were using them for their tea break! They were kind enough to loan them to us. Also seen here is the exceptional ladder, handmade for the purpose by our Design Tech teacher. It was wooden, to suit the period, and light enough to lift easily, but strong enough for students to climb and dance on.
This one is just to show you some of the costumes. Most of these were op shop purchases with braid etc added. She really is a genius!
Here's the classic cake moment. You can see my prop cake slices to the left and the flying shaving foam to the right! The small triangle at Lena's hem is the slice of cake which held the foam.
Here's the dummy and the ladder in action.
The imposing Producer's desk with awards...although I wish I'd included a writing stand or lamp. Mind you...the young man would probably have trodden on them.
And here's the whole staff crew. Spot the only backstage member not wearing black trousers!!! #eyeroll.
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