Highly Stylized Throne Chair

Click photo to enlarge:
This is a scene from the world debut of the youth version of Starmites the Broadway musical called "Starmites Lite". I designed the set and lights here at Sloan Theatre. Look at Diva's throne room turntable upstage-right. You will see the cool science-fiction/fantasy style chair.

Here is the chair as it looked when I rented it from Triad Sceneshop. It was very dirty and very rusty. But you could tell someone put a lot of time into welding it together, possibly for a Shakespeare play. It came without a swivel base, so I built one out of one of my lighting booms.

I cleaned it up and spray painted it chrome color. When I returned the chair to Triad Sceneshop, I decided to include my boom base. However, if you use this chair, be sure you U-bolt the base to a platform like I did, or the chair might tip over.

Here, the manual turntable is revolving to reveal Diva and her Banchees in her throne room. You can see the throne behind her. (Click photo to enlarge it).

Please don't call me about this sci-fi/fantasy throne, it is stored in the Triad Sceneshop furniture storage room. Thanks, Dana

Giant pretzels

And they look delicious! Oversized pretzels with sequins on them to make them sparkly. They were originally used in "The Producers." I'll give them to you in exchange for a couple of tickets to see your show. (It's not like I have a need for huge fake pretzels.)

If you don;'t make too many cruel comments, I'll post the photo of them backstage. (I don't have an actualy action shot of them on stage - dang!)

"Rock" barbell

Exactly what it sounds like - 2 big fake rocks on a stick that we used as a barbell in "Once Upon a Mattress." If you want it, it's yours to keep! (No take backs. There's not enough room in our garage to keep this kind of thing.) And it's FREE! (But it would be really nice if you offered me 2 tickets to see your show. Just sayin...)

"Bamboo" Bench

I bought this interesting faux-bamboo bench at Garden Ridge because I thought it was perfect for Anna's bedroom in "The King and I", (Click photo below):
But then I painted the legs gold and used it in more of a Deco setting in "Thoroughly Modern Millie", (below):
***I donated this bench to Triad Stage Sceneshop.  You can rent it from them.

5 Bar Stools for GREASE or WEST SIDE STORY

We have five tall bar stools. They have chrome legs and colorful tops that spin. I used them in Doc's Soda Shop in "West Side Story" and in a middle school production of "Grease". I put these stools to use every day in my lighting booth and up in the followspot balconies. They could be borrowed by a local theatre but need to be returned!

They can be seen in the Burger Palace scene above and the house party scene below.

"Greased Lightning" Car for GREASE

For my middle school production of "Grease" a couple years ago, I rented a 3/4 scale styrofoam car shell from John Saari at Greensboro College. It worked really well for this age group. (Click photos to enlarge them).

I also borrowed an old golf cart from a parent. The foam body nests perfectly on top of the standard golf cart. Of course you have to remove the roof:

Here is the car at the night-time drive-in movie scene. The headlights really work, which is very cool in this scene. By the way, the hood and trunk areas are built strong enough to support the boy's weight as they climb on the car!

Here is a picture of the inside of the car. You can see how the foam hull nests perfectly onto the old golf cart. On the driver's door you can see the controls for the headlights.

Please do not contact me about this car, I got it from Greensboro College. It should still be in storage there. Contact them directly. Paste this link to John Saari's site: http://theatre.greensborocollege.edu/john.html

The Old Carriage! (A large, weight-bearing wagon)

This is a local community theatre "stock" prop that I have used several times over the years. It is a period wagon that was made of sturdy welded steel about 20 years ago. It originally was the "Surrey With a Fringe on Top" for a community production of "Oklahoma!" But over the years it has been converted to Tevye's cart for "Fiddler on the Roof", the pumpkin coach for "Cinderella", the "Wells Fargo Wagon" for "Music Man", and the runaway cart for "Les Miserables". So this old prop will surely live on to make many more appearances in our shows! To rent it, you can find the Triad Sceneshop link below. Click my photos to enlarge them:
Above, you can see the carriage as I converted it into the runaway cart for our 2008 production of "Les Miserables The School Edition". This is after the lights come up and Valjean lifts the front wheel to save the man. For this period look, I fabricated a fake driver's seat and a dozen burlap bags filled with lightweight styrofoam packing peanuts!

But the cart entered the stage in darkness. First, I had the crew quickly push it out onto the rotating electric turntable. Then the scene was lit with only strobe lights, so it gave the illusion that the cart was rolling. You can see the actor falling under the front wheel of the cart, which is actually standing still on the rapidly rotating turntable. The "rolling" effect was stunning to the audience.

Below is that same carriage in another one of our plays. This is my pumpkin coach for our 2003 middle school production of "Cinderella" the musical. I got some flexible PVC plumbing pipe and fashioned a fragmentary/suggestive pumpkin on top. (The castle drop is from KENMARK).
*The bare carriage frame can be rented locally at the Triad Sceneshop. See it at the bottom of their "props" file: http://picasaweb.google.com/TriadStageSceneShop