Theatre is all about illusion

Theatre is all about illusion. As Dr. Betty Evans taught us in Drama 107, - "The willing suspension of disbelief." The opera Pelleas et Melisande was a wonderful example of this concept.

The scenic design was created as a collection of small glass models by the glass artist Dale Chihuly, to be reproduced on our shop as a combination of steel, plastic and paint.

A reoccurring challenge to what we build is that it not only has to look like what the designer wanted, but it must also behave as scenery. What that means is first, to get it from our shop to the theater it must disassemble into manageable parts, fit into a truck, reassemble rapidly on-stage, and be manageable for scene changes during the show.

Particular to Pelleas, there is music written (read that as a specific time limit) for the scene changes - some as short as 120 seconds. How to accomplish that and the and have the audience belive designs were "glass." Pelleas was a challenge.

To see a larger image, slide-show version, click here, or on any of the images below.

Here is one of the glass models. Not only did this piece have to look transparent - like glass, but people had to play in it too.

I pondered many approaches to this problem. I had considered fabricating this entirely out of acrylic, but it would be too heavy, and fragile. Polycarbonate (the stuff bullet-proof glass is made of), was too expensive.

Finally, I decided to build it out of something I knew very well - steel.

After we'd made the steel armature, it was time to cover it in plastic. We used varying types and thickness of plastic, depending on where the singers were going to walk.

We built a large radiant heat oven to soften the plastic sheets, and using sand bags, forced it to the needed shapes.

We broke a few.

We, of course, treated the glass artwork with the greatest respect.

Mike and Tim are enjoying an M&M work-break treat (I wished the photo had come out better).

Me and my guys just before we pushed the candy-dish into the paint department.

The paint shop also did a great job. What was fun about this show was the collaboration between all departments to faithfully reproduce these sculptures.

This is another piece we built, it was known in the shop as the "carrot". I'm talking over details of this piece with Margie, who was the Master Scenic Artist for Seattle Opera at that time. In her right hand you can see the glass model we built this piece from.

Next bit o-glass. The schedule for this show was a little nuts. The designer was slow in producing the models that we built from, but the date for the show's opening night doesn't change.

My guys and I worked 20 days straight building this show, averaging about 14 to 16 hour days. This piece was a little easer to build than the well - no one walks in it.

Here it is underway. You can see the glass model in the right foreground of the photo.

I was amazed we didn't break any of the glass artwork during the build.

Not all the pieces were built from steel and plastic. The one shown here was made of clear vinyl by the same people who make the Macy Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons.

To keep them inflated during painting, we had had blowers running off a generator 24 hours a day - till they were shipped to the stage. We also used the blowers to keep them inflated onstage.

Here are the three balloons all painted up for the show. The yellow one was the stem for the flower seen in an earler photo.

The vinyl was very tough, but not tough enough to withstand scenic artist Kevin and a toy tommy gun.

Backstage at the opera house, and ready to go onstage.

Who are these people?

And why are they in front of our scenery?