So I volunteered to be a part of this year's Halloween 313 2013 production: 20,000 Screams under the sea! A steampunk extravaganza about captain Nemo and how he defeats the Sea Witch Cycerax and slays her monsterous Kraken.
https://www.facebook.com/Halloween313Theatrical
I did this sketch for the sea witch throne and everybody loved it.
I built the throne as you can see below out of all donated and found items. The Lobsters came from Materials For the Arts. The cardboard from a local print house that stacks their shipping packages out in front of their business every couple weeks. (great source for cardboard!) The crustacean claws were made from that cardboard.
The sea anemones were made from a flip flop factory's remnants, tied and pulled into paper towel rolls that were wet and tossed into an oven at a low temp to get the "shriveled" look to hold. All the "stems" were spray painted once pulled from the oven and threaded with string to hold the anemones in place.
I made the tentacles by sewing some fabric I picked up at a yard sale for 5 bucks. I left a length of fabric on the end of each tentacle so I could tie it to a loop I made at the end of the heavy gauge wire inside each tentacle. I then filled them with poly-fill from some cushions I had stashed for a purpose such as this (you never know when you are going to need poly-fill right?:) Once fully stuffed I sewend the ends shut leaving a nice length of the wire sticking out. These were then spray painted as well. I treated the chair sort of like a Mr. Portato Head in that I drilled out holes and slipped the tentacle wires ends into the holes of the chair. I had to do it this way because the whole thing had to be put in my car and delivered to the play site.
The side panel coral reef sections were made from chicken wire draped with bed sheets that i covered with a mold making paste that dried nice and wrinkly. All of the anemones were then placed and "plugged' into holes I cut through the sheets and chicken wire and then secured underneath by tying the ends of the threaded string holding the flip flop strands (anemones) onto the grid of the chicken wire.
I assembled my "Mr. Potato Head" throne on the stage in a slight drizzle. The whole thing took me 20 minutes to put together.
there it is in action on the far right with the evil Sea Wench Cycerax croaking and bellowing from her throne of coral and tentacles.
A great time had by all and what an amazing group of people to have had the pleasure to work with. Until next year!!
