The Wizard of Oz Set Design
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 16 окт 2024
- Winner of the 2022 Sutton Foster Awards for Best Set Design for a High School Musical!
This is my set design and construction for the 2022 BHS Musical production of The Wizard of Oz. This was a pretty complicated show with a lot of rolling pieces and a few hundred feet of LEDs.
Dorthy's house is 6' x 12' rolling cart and has movable features to make it look like it has been through a tornado. The front window pivots on a hinge and pulling a hinged support block allows it to be changed on stage in a few seconds. One of the posts for the front porch roof is also hinged so the roof can partially collapse. We did the traditional sepia tones for the first few scenes similar to the movie B&W opening. A small foyer from the bedroom to the front door allows for a quick costume change before Dorthy opens the door to Munchkin Land. Completing the farm scene is a rolling, motorized windmill.
Professor Marvel's caravan is a simple plywood and 2x4 cart. We bought wagon wheels online and used conduit for an axle. The stove pipe was rigged with dry ice fog, to make it smoke a bit on stage. The canvas top is a paint drop cloth and the school graphics department did the lettering.
The center piece for Munchkin Land is a 40' wide by 20' tall rainbow with LED back lighting. This was made from 11 sheets of plywood with a 2x4 frame. Twenty 32' strips of LEDs were stuck to the plywood. 1/4" Luan sides were glued and stapled to the edge of the plywood and polyester diffusion cloth was stretched over it and stapled in place. We used double side basting tape to stick the cloth together at the seams. The cloth was only 60" wide, so several strips were needed. You can see wrinkles in the cloth when it is not lit, but these don't project to the audience when it lights up. Ten DMX LED controllers and six 12V power supplies drive the LEDs.
Framed by the rainbow is a 32' wide by 12' tall backdrop of Munchkin houses. We are lucky enough to have an artist for one of the actor's parents, and he laid out and painted the whole village. An 8' wide by 12' tall rolling Munchkin house provides another entry point for the actors.
The theatre won't allow us to paint the stage, so we didn't have a good YBR. I came across a professional production that used a turn table with an undulating piece. The directors fell in love with this idea, and I designed two rolling pieces that could be connected in a semi-circle or zig-zag. They are 22' long by ~5' wide and split into 10' and 12' sections. The pieces each have three plywood stringers with plywood treads. Luan is bent around each side to give them an organic shape. Using Fusion 360 to design the pieces in 3D made construction easy. Some quarter round, plastic trim was glued and stapled to the sides, and LED strips adhered to the underside of them. 12V tractor batteries and wireless controllers powered the LEDs. The YBR pieces are moved around the stage with the aid of two pipes. We made 3 sets pipes to go with Munchkin Land, the forests, and the Emerald City.
For the scarecrow and tinman, we made a few rolling pieces of a corn field and a wood pile. The corn stalks are bamboo, with paper leaves and plastic bottles of the ears of corn. The wood pile has a platform for the Wicked Witch to land on. The ends of the logs are painted foam glued to a Luan flat. The Luan was cut to match the resulting log pile and more foam gave the pile a 3D look.
The Emeral City starts with two round doors with a hidden hatch. Foam was used to make the Oz logo. The two doors are held together with gate latches and open and rotate 90 degrees to reveal a LED lit starburst pattern. The rainbow is reused in this scene but lit all green. A semi-circle flat with more LEDs in a starburst pattern is framed by the rainbow.
To spruce up the 4 actors to meet the Wizard, we made a buffing table for the Tinman and a makeup table for Dorthy with a faux mirror outline. We found a barber chair for the Lion but had nothing for the Scarecrow. One of the directors care up with a hairbrained idea to strap him down to a rotating table so they could stuff him. Always up for a challenge, I came up with what you see. Two car seatbelts hold him in place and a pair of black pipe hand holds give the actor extra control. A locking mechanism holds the table up side down and up right.
The Wizard 's head is 2" foam with some Luan supports and covered in stretch fabric. The mouth is driven by a servo. It is hinged above a cart and can move up an down.
The Witch's castle is a 16' long rolling piece with a cantilevered upper level. A mating flat flies in behind it. Below the upper level is a hydraulic scissor lift that is used to lower the witch when she "melts". The crystal ball is a 20" street light globe with a custom base that has LEDs and a tube to fill it with fog.
Looks beautiful
Extremely talented and creative
Hi what fabric did you use to cover the rainbow. Many thanks
@@peterlegg3568 We bought "diffusion" fabric from Rose lighting supply, but I think any white, polyester fabric would work as well. We were just trying to reduce the glare from the LEDs and blend the colors a bit.
Hi Jim! I'm doing some set design work for my daughter's middle school Oz production, and I'm shamelessly using several of these designs. May I ask where you got the wagon wheels for the Marvel cart? I'd like to make something similar, if a bit smaller (only me & 1 other parent working on this stuff) but I can only seem to find full blown wagon wheels that are $175 each, or thin decorative wheels that probably wouldn't take the weight.
I'm not entirely sure, but I think our props team found them on Amazon. They we less than $100 if I recall. Otherwise we have found similar wheels on Craigslist and FB market place.
Jim, would you be willing to share plans for the motorized windmill?
Sure, we used a geared motor that is available on Amazon for about $20. Email me at my Gmail account tnjyoung7
Emailed you! Thanks
Thanks so much for posting! I'm directing a production this summer and would love to build something similar to your YBR. Could you tell me what kind of casters you used, and where they were attached?
I have plans available for the YBR. It s basically 3 plywood stairs stringers with luan bent around the front and back. The 5" casters are attached to each end (3 per side)
Do you have the full show? This set design is incredible!
Thanks! The licensing for the show prevents posting the entire show. I'm not sure how other schools think it is ok to do that.
COuld you post the tornado scene?
Clearly, they had a healthy budget.
@reallyyouthful It definitely helps! We've built up the program over the years and sell out 7 to 8 shows in a 900 seat auditorium. We've also been able to sell a lot of the sets after the run to offset costs.
This is beautiful! Any chance it could be made available to rent?
The entire set has-been sold to a school in Alabama and the will probably be on its way to Arizona after that. We are considering selling the plans for the major pieces.
@@jimyoung5759 do you happen to know where it might be located now? We are doing this show in June at our HS, and would love to rent this set!! It's great.
@@flyweed it may be in Arizona by now.
wow! do you have any footage of the witch's castle life in action?
You mean like the witch melting?
@@jimyoung5759 yes!
@@Dee-si2xv I'll post it in action in the future
@@jimyoung5759 Thanks Hope to see it!
Wow!!!!!!!
Thanks!
@@jimyoung5759 I've seen a lot of Productions of the Wizard of Oz and this is by far the best stage setup I've seen.
Hey Jim. Love your rainbow, so HOW did you lay out the rainbow curve/design before cutting it out? We are doing something similar, and I figured why reinvent the wheel, if I can get layout info from you, so we can get our wood laid down on the floor and the rainbow drawn out on it for cutting. Thanks for any info.
The rainbow was 11 sheets of 3/4" plywood. They were laid out on the stage and taped together. Two screws were driven into the stage at the center of the two arcs. The inside arc is centered 2' above the outside arc. Then we just used a tape measure to mark the arcs. Use a circular saw set to cut just over 3/4" deep to cut the pieces. Set the plywood on 1" Styrofoam to keep from cutting the floor.
@@jimyoung5759 so the 2 screws were basically "bottom & center" of the rainbow? Is the base of your rainbow wider then say "top center" ??
@flyweed the outer arc is centered at the bottom, so it is a true half circle. The inner arc is centered 2' up, so it is more than a half circle. If you look at the photos, the rainbow is wider at the bottom and narrower at the top. I think it looks better than a constant width arc.
@@jimyoung5759 ahhh, gotcha. that makes sense. so what did you do about the plywood" seams, where they overlapped the next sheet? did you cut them to butt up flush with each other?
one last question, so the bottom/base of either side of your rainbow is 4ft (full sheet) width, and then narrows as it goes up? correct?