About a week ago myself and Paul Meacham started to build the single most impressive structure that I have ever built. For the upcoming The Woman in Black we had to build a proscenium arch because the play takes place in a theater. This proscenium arch is 16 feet tall and about 24 feet wide. The headpiece is 3 feet tall and rests on spindly 14 inch columns. When laid out on the floor on Day One it looked something like this:
Once we had the three pieces set up we set about decorating them. We used vacuform plastic for the columns and some of the more intricate detail work.
There was also some wood panelling done by cutting 1 X 3 in half
After the talented Jackie Perry had had a go at painting the pieces then it was time to put them up. We were to hoist the headpiece by this:
After a consultation with my rigging handbook and a loan of equipment and muscle from my friend John Anderson, we were able to lift the headpiece on top of the columns and cable them in place.
Finished Product (sort of)
Next we have some fake curtains to put up and a scrim. Here’s what they look like when they’re not up.
So there is still more to do but that will have to wait for a little more tailoring from Patricia Meacham and a little more painting from Jackie Perry. More to be posted later.
Wolf of Words 