SCENERY PAINTING FOR THE AMATEUR MUSICAL THEATRE and PANTOMIME

DICK WHITTINGTON - (Lisnagarvey) page one
Designed and painted by Brian Willis.
Scenery built by Robert Montgomery, Stan Moss, Derek Allen and Jim Moffatt.
Performed by Lisnagarvey Operatic Society (1972)

All these drawings are a bit worse for wear as they are well over thirty years old.
THE DOCKS Three wings either side with a backcloth at rear.

 

I drew the layouts of the wings separately as follows. I don't know if it is worth adding in these separate drawings to the site but they illustrate the way I attack a scene. Having read the script and talked to the producer I then write down a huge list of all the elements which might possibly be in the scene. Of course not all of them are used but you can see my mind working here with ..."yes some old wooden steps, perhaps a ring for mooring boats, barrels, got have barrels for a quay side" etc etc.

There's a ramp (audience right).

I designed and built sets for a show one year which was held in a hall that had no means of supporting flats and there was no room off stage for weights and braces, so I used ramps which enabled us to clip the scenery to them and they then became self supporting units.

All these "flats" are flat i.e. the elements on them (steps etc) are painted trompe l'oeil. In this case the stairs follow the eyeline of about a foot off the stage floor Although it looks as if my quay on the backcloth is disappearing about four foot off the stage floor. The audience never notices these differences.
 

Note all the wing edges are profile. I hate straight-edged wings . Profile edges help the wings merge into each other optically and confuse the audience into thinking it is one wall of scenery instead of separate wings. Also, when lit at an angle, wing edges like these make nice silhouettes and cast interesting shadows.

The undulating painted-on shadow of the ring infers the rough stonework on which the shadow is cast.

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