Theater: Foam Cakes

Hello, Dolly called for an elaborate dance number called the Harmonia Gardens waiter's gallop. Waiters would dance around the stage with cake trays, and needed props that were light and sturdy.

Here is half of the small cakes secured to hand trays. These were rough cut foam pieces in cylindrical shapes. I used various sanding methods and knives to give shape to the cake icing on the top and bottom rims.

I didn't get to paint these cakes myself as another crew member was assigned to do so, but I think the colors are pretty fun.

One of the more complex cakes was what we called the 5-tier trick cake. A clumsy waiter would fumble around with this cake as it wobbled precariously on its tray during the dance number. My instructor found a way to stack rings of polystyrene foam on a fishing rod to get the right wobbling effect and I was assigned the construction of the cake

Here the rings, cut with a bandsaw, have already been glued together and are drying out in the sun with its frosting (made from caulking). The icing swirls are made from squeezing caulking out of a snipped bag- basically treating it like icing anyway. 

Sadly again, I didn't get to paint this one either. Before painting, I sanded any accidental sharp points created from the caulking and brushed all the rings with a layer of glue to keep the caulking from chipping. This is the cake at rest on its home prop table. Below is a clip showing how all the assembled layers wobbled (with my commentary).

 

Theater: Foam Birds

Hello, Dolly has an amazing scene (choreography and dialogue wise) that takes place in a fancy restaurant called Harmonia Gardens. The choreographer wanted a small moment where a waiter skewers a cooked pheasant from a tray, which meant the prop needed to be light and reusable. We placed a funnel inside a foam piece to work around those guidelines.

Just starting the roughing process.

Once the bird got to the fine sanding stage. I joked that the base made it look like a family crest meant to hang on the wall.

The scene later called for a second stationary cooked bird and a separated leg. Here they are with a base coat of primer ready to be fiberglassed for extra protection.

This is the second bird dressed on a dinner plate. Painted it to get a roasted texture.

We ended up scrapping the leg before it could get painted, but the tech crew kept it as a potential prop for future shows. Here I am holding it for scale.

This was my first experience working with fiberglass, and honestly the process worked much more intuitively than I originally expected. I had a lot of fun sculpting and sanding these birds out. It was a great first step getting a feel for these materials, as I'll definitely be using them for future prototyping in Industrial Design.

Theater: Duvatine Silhouette

Here's a simple silhouette I made out of black duvatine. In Hello, Dolly! the titular character mentions her interest in creating silhouettes of celebrities like Ada Rehan and pulls out an example to wow the stage. 

The silhouette is backed with muslin using fabric glue. For easy access, the ends wrap around two dowels so that the piece is stored conveniently rolled up in the main character's purse, ready to be displayed.

  

Preliminary sketching with white china marker. Below is the photo of Ada Rehan I referenced. 

Theater: Woodworking

Saddleback College customizes many of the stage pieces in Hello, Dolly! in their woodshop back stage. Below are three prop wooden crates used in the show. 

I pulled the bottom pre-painted crate from the prop cage as a reference- we wanted a simple, worn style as part of a feed store set. I then constructed the upper two crates to carry a certain number of soup cans and candles, which the script required. The crates were a matter of measuring the boxed items and using the table saw with a staple gun to do the rest.

I used the same techniques to construct flies that would support the background. Here I learned how describe dimension of wood and follow blueprints from my instructor to cut the correct measurement with the chopsaw.

A fuller view of the backstage shop. In the right there are green pieces I used the router on.

Theater: Graphics

I volunteered to create some graphic designs for the main character's business cards as well as the menu for the fancy dinner scene in Hello, Dolly! The graphics needed to be seen from the audience, so I focused mainly on bolded text. I researched products at the turn of the 19th century online and through books in order fits the play's period.

The menus were placed on black masonite as the waiters handled them while dancing.

My instructors decided to use both designs for the business cards and printed them on aged-color cardstock.

Doodles: Happy Birthday

Here is a small graphic I made for a dear friend of mine in Photoshop. The gradient and vector based pattern are inspired by the app game, Monument Valley.

Spatial Dynamics: Egg Tool

This wooden game course is my interpretation of the Egg Tool project from Spatial Dynamics. The prompt was to create something that would:

1) pick up an egg,

2) crush the egg (preferably separating it from the shell)

3) and beat the egg.

I decided to add in a step 0) play with the egg. 

Pulling in elements from pool, croquet, and mini golf, I made a game board that the user could tilt and roll an egg around inside. Users were challenged to roll the egg through gates and up a ramp while avoiding corner holes.

The removable center triangle piece housed the rest of the steps. The bottom of the flag crushed the eggs through the holed bottom and the scooped flag made out of chiseled cherry would act as a spoon to beat the egg. The piece was finely sanded and waxed to protect the wood from egg fluids. I am particularly proud of my triangle, which references a billiard triangle and which I mitered my hand.

The egg tool game board came after a long process of brainstorming sketches.

What inspired me the most in the end was simple form explorations, which allowed me to consider other ways of moving the egg through a tool. 

The most significant thing I learned from this is not limit my ideas to the most "efficient" solution possible. While I do admire simple functionality dictating an elegant form, this was the first project I allowed myself to incorporate fun interactivity.