A Tale of Two Sets

Another season means another ProAm Musical to design and build. This season, we were able to take leftover set pieces from last fall’s production of “Hunchback” and make them work for both Youth Theatre of Hardin County’s summer production of Seussical as well as the fall ProAm production of Mamma Mia! with just a little tweak here and there. This is a design trick we’ve used often in the past to help better manage time and budgets for not only the PAC but YTHC as well.

The real trick is fooling the audience into thinking they are seeing a whole new set! The design process usually begins with me sketching and building scale models which I then share with the PAC’s Technical Director (and conveniently, YTHC’s director) Aaron Taylor. I make adjustments based upon his input and then we start to build. So what exactly did we do? Compare the two set designs and see:

• Shapes: In researching both productions I found some architectural shapes that were similar between Seuss’ drawings and Greek cities like the island paradise where Mamma Mia! takes place. After Seussical closed we just had to lop off some of the more fantastical elements.
• Movement: Even though the set for Seussical was stationery we built it on wheels knowing that we would be using all sides of it for Mamma Mia!
• Doors and windows: likewise, we straightened out the fanciful Seussical door and window openings and added shutters.
• Texture and color: finally we converted the heavily outlined brightly colored flat comic book look of the Seussical set into the sandy texture and beachy Mediterranean hues of Mamma Mia!

Simple. Right? Come see for yourself as Mamma Mia! rocks the PAC later this month!

Don’t forget that you can leave feedback on this and all blog posts by leaving your comment on its post at the HCS PAC Facebook page.

This month the PAC Kid Spotlight shines on John Hardin High School graduate VaShon DeVille. VaShon is squeezing in one last role at the PAC in Mamma Mia! before heading to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in California. Learn more about VaShone and our other PAC Kids.

Congratulations to our social media contest winner: Rachel Burress won free tickets to see Mamma Mia! at the PAC.