Big Fence & Ballroom boxing progress

Turns out that Six Flags really liked the "broken fence" I designed (see photo of partially completed fence below) So much so that they wanted another one...

Hole in Fence for backwoods bloodshed...without the final paint job...

However, the second one they wanted needed to be 20 feet tall...So, I came up with this design, with two options...let me know which one you like better...

I like the really large "painted-in-blood" sign...

...But I could also see the need for some modesty....

 Also this week I was able to move forward a good bit on the Ballroom Boxing painting....

Ballroom Boxing shot on the easel from my camera phone...

Same painting with a bit of color (and glare) correction...

I feel that I am within striking distance for this painting...I didn't anticipate the complexity of a crowd scene, but I think that I can make it work if I just keep making the center of the picture the main light source, and silhouetting the crowd is with the glow of the ring...

Next week I should start getting more progress shots of the designs for Halloween (seeing as we will officially be in October by then!)

Broken Fences & Giant Nutcracking

I have been making lots of progress on Ballroom Boxing (I had hopes that I would finish it this week, but that seems unlikely now, considering how slow the going has been) but I forgot to take pictures of it...so, I promise progress photos next week!

Six Flags has been a bit of a slog, but they finally decided on a final (less interesting IMHO) design this past Monday.

In the end they "just wanted a broken fence" and "can you please add lighting to the rendering"...Okay, done. "that's too much lighting"...

So, here is the final version, with toned down lighting, and all of the props removed...

On the plus side, they were all very impressed with the other renderings, and would like to work with me on other projects that are more...scripted... Stay tuned, I'll send photos of the final product once it gets built (which should be in short order, because Fright Fest starts October 1!)

Speaking of Halloween, I have started to begin to design the backyard scenery for SPOOKTACULAR XII "the Spooktacular that stole X-Mass and punched it in the face"...what better to get into the evil Christmas spirit than a giant nutcracker head for the back yard?!

My thought is that "Mr. Chompers" (provisional name...what do you call a guy who only wants nuts in his mouth all day? I'll be taking nominations in the comments...) will also be the "game" for the backyard...I was originally thinking of a skee-ball type game, where you roll balls into his mouth...but the more I think about it, the more I like a putt-putt game (the balls are smaller, of a predictable weight and readily available) So this is not the final incarnation of the giant nutcracker head, just the start of the journey (which ends in 37 days!)

Slightly farther down the pike, but also approaching just as fast is Elvis' Birthday Fight Club...we are starting to have meetings and we are likely to pick the fighters in the next few weeks. I've created a sample "fight card" in order to get the writers excited about the prospect of some juicy gladiatorial combat!

Imagination Stage Open House and Backwoods Bloodshed

For those of you keeping score, I did not post last week. I was in super crunch time for the Imagination Stage Open House, and did not have time to devote to telling you all about how I didn't have enough time to...tell you...about how...never mind...

So, here's some photographic highlights of the set from the highly successful Open House:

The P-Nokio boombox still stapled to the easel (8'h x12'w)

Blurry Photo of the boombox in the dance studio

A "frozen" P-Nokio actor (the white witch froze everyone) and some of the kids sent to save him

Kids getting instructions on how to find the white witch

The Imagination Land Map still stapled to the easel (8'h x 12'w)

Imagination Land Map setup in the lobby

Aladdin rides his magic carpet

Rapunzel's Tower

Rapunzel's Tower with alligator filled moat

Closeup of the Wardrobe

Folks going through the wardrobe into Narnia...

The White Witch tries to freeze all of the kids!

As you can see, a good time was had by all...I am looking forward to next year's Open House already!

The other design work I had started this weekend was developing some scenery for the Six Flags "Backwoods Bloodshed" (the haunted trail behind the amusement park) Here, presented without comment are some of the designs I have submitted (lord only knows which ones they will like...)

Ballroom Boxing progress and Imagination Stage Open House Carpentry

Ive spent this past week building scenery for the Imagination Stage Open House on September 10th. I am at the carpentry stage right now, which is always a bit of a slog for me...I've often said that "I hate carpentry, but its what holds up the paint"...

Rapunzel's Castle

 I have tried to build the entire open house out of recycled/repurposed materials. For example, the door in the center of Rapunzel's Castle was salvaged from the Wind in the Willows set strike. I've cut a door in the top left panel of the door for the Rapunzel puppet to be operated from.

Narnia Wardrobe

The Wind in the Willows door has yielded two re-purposings...the back of the door became the split doors of the wardrobe for the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe. I will be building the rest of the show this week, so you should have a full accounting of the show by the next blog post (two shows down, three to go!)

The week, of course, was punctuated by the arrival of hurricane Irene on Saturday. Fortunately we got through it with minimal damage. In fact, the only thing that really seemed to be damaged was our BBQ grill, which fell off of our new backyard deck.

During the Hurricane I was able to make some more progress on Ballroom Boxing...

The background changed a good bit...I decided that I wanted to go with a softer, looser background in order to keep the focus on the ring at center. A couple of days after Irene, I started to block in the main characters again, and started making some decisions about lighting....

I've started adding some of the audience members (particularly the Robot) My intent has been to populate the audience with a rouges gallery of characters, but KT is particularly adamant that they all remain monkeys...I'd be interested in hearing what you think...on the one hand I can see the value of making it consistent parallel monkey universe (a "planet of the apes" if you will) but on the other hand, there is something so awesome about this fight night that I don't want anyone to feel left out...

Lastly, I am designing a small set piece for this Fall's Hope Operas Of course, its a pile of poop. Ah, showbiz!