Seussian Grass

My next prop for Seussical Jr. is a little patch of Seussian grass.  Horton is supposed to sit in the grass and look for the speck of dust that holds the tiny town of Whoville. I thought a circle of grass would be good.  He can sit in the middle and ponder the flowers.

I had my husband cut a few 2x4s into 5 of these shapes.

Then I drilled some holes the ends and attached them together with hinges.  I also put wheels on the bottom of each piece.  I only bought 5 wheels (because I was cheeping out) but it's too wobbly.  I need at least 5 more - really I could use 10 more, but the wheels are about 2.50 each and I don't want to spend 25.00 on wheels.  

Each side of each 2x4 you see above gets a piece of cardboard "grass" attached.  I cut a low piece for the front side of each board, and a tall side for the back of each board.  I may label them, too, so the stage crew is sure to face the correct side to the audience.  I'm going to attach them to the boards after I bring the whole thing to school since I can picture it really flapping around in the bed of the pickup truck.  I'll post another shot when it's all attached and I've added the flowers.

Goodnight, everyone - till next time!

Seussical Jr. - Main Stage Piece

There are loads of props in seussical Jr., but I think I have finally nailed down a plan for our largest set piece.  I was looking for something that would add height to the stage and incorporate those crazy, Seussian curves. 

It starts with this basic structure:

It's a row of 5 cubes (if you count the stairs on each side as a cubes). The center 3 pieces are open front and back and they are actually 6 pieces rather than 3. Each is only 2 feet deep; the one behind is another 2 feet deep, creating a total of 4 feet in depth. With minimal disassembly, this allows for easier transport and storage in the basement, which would be next to impossible with a 4 foot cube.

Now that I'm thinking about it, we might have to split the stair unit on each side into two pieces as well. Those would be split on the horizontal - bottom two stairs, one piece, top two stairs another.  When the structural pieces are complete, they'll be lined up and attached together for stability.  A series of tall, round, loopy designs will attach to the back to form a sort of back railing, and another group of shorter looped designs will attach to the front to form a railing on the front side as well.

So now I have to figure out how much lumber we're going to need.  I can't find my worksheet at the moment, but it looks like each of the 6 cubes in the middle will require 1 sheet of plywood and about 42 feet of 2x4s, or some other combination of 2x4-like lumber.  Math time!

Pillberry Bush - pretty much done!

Here is the pillberry bush with its spray painted trunk. I sprayed it with Rustoleum Ultra Cover - says it also bonds to plastic.  I'm not a fan of spray paint, but the paint from the can doesn't seen to stick well to the spray foam.  I'm now going to transport it to school and there I'll glue on the fabric "soil" (my friend who does the costumes has some appropriate fabric in her fabric stash) and maybe some felt on the bottom of the pot for easy sliding. On to the next project!