Castle Set Painting

I got to help with some set painting for the production of "Beauty and the Beast" at Curtis Jr. High. Sylvie Hillsberg, the choir teacher there, is the sister of Patrick Watson, who puts on the multi-stake productions like the Broadway Revue and Savior of the World (with his wife JoLee). I went over to the school and met with Sylvie and got measurements, then went home and designed this on the computer:



The blank spaces are for a staircase and platform. 



Sylvie got the outlines traced on the cardboard and I was able to help with the painting over two afternoons.  There were other people to help too, so I didn't have to do it all myself.  We got the base colors down and then I slapped some quick shading on the columns and railing.  I used the biggest brush they had and was proud of myself for not letting it take too long. 



I took Kate to the 1:00 matinee performance this afternoon.  Here she is playing Triple Town on my kindle while waiting for the play to start.



The backdrop was on six four-by-twelve panes of cardboard, with the castle on one side and the town scene on the other side. The panels were suspended from the ceiling so they could turn them back and forth quickly.



They used Fiona's library, too!



The kids did a great job. I especially enjoyed Lumiere's performance.   Kate was a little less engaged in the whole thing, but she liked the big group numbers. This was the Broadway version, so there were some songs that aren't in the movie, that I hadn't heard before.



I got a line in the program. (They spelled my last name wrong--eh, it happens!)

I've been saying I needed a project.  This was a fun thing to work on for a few days, and fun to see the end result in use!