I've had the opportunity to create an assortment of exciting theatrical experiences, ranging from massive puppets to smaller illusions and special effects. Here is some documentation of some of my favorite projects.
The Tiamat
The Tiamat is a giant 5 headed dragon from Dungeons and Dragon lore brought to life onstage in the play She Kills Monsters. The Tiamat puppet had to be durable and lightweight, allowing a large range of motion without damaging the puppet. I decided to use stacks of cardboard boxes with rope connecting them to create my Tiamat.
Before going full scale (over 8 feet tall), I decided to test my concept with a small scale model.
Satisfied with the proof of concept, I moved on to constructing the full dragon with the assistance of some friends to wrangle the large boxes. Over the course of an afternoon we built 5 dragon puppets ranging in height from 8-10 feet tall. Then I carved out the mouths and we attached flashlights for the eyes. The final stage picture was unexpected and exciting.
Lighting by Derek Christiansen, Photo by Edward Hansen
Lighting by Derek Christiansen, Photo by Edward Hansen
And here's a video of the dragon in action:
Headless Moritz
The stage play Springs Awakening by Franz Wedekind presents the creative team with the unique challenge of the character Moritz entering at the end of the play with his head detached from his neck. I was brought on to the creative team of a production of Springs Awakening to help solve this problem. I initially presented the director with a couple of option offering different degrees of "headlessness" and freedom of movement. We eventually selected an approach that would allow the actor full mobility around the stage while still allowing him to become headless.
The plan was to create a rigid "vest" for the actor to wear under a large coat. The vest would fasten around his hips, securing a pivot point from which he could bend his torso over, dropping his head off of his neck. I used thin cardboard reinforced with coat hanger to create the vest, before wrapping the entire thing in black fleece to pad out the rough edges and ensure that it would not fall apart onstage.
Here's a video of the rig in action:
And here is the effect onstage in the production:
Hateful Hands
Hateful Hands, my puppet based adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth, had lots of special effects to create the supernatural world the play is set in. Here's a couple of my favorites:
BANQUO'S GHOST
Every production of Macbeth I've seen stages Banquo's ghost more or less the same way. The actor who played Banquo comes back onstage with either pale makeup or fake blood or both applied to their face and slowly struts around a table while Macbeth yells at them. I wanted to try to take a different approach and use a shadow projection of Banqo interacting with the real world to sell the ghostly apparition.
I knew that my set would consist of an upper scrim that could be backlit, so I blocked the scene with the table up against the scrim, so that Banquo's "ghost" (shadow of the actor upstage of the scrim) could appear to interact with what was on the table.
Some highlights of this concept included when Banquo lifted his arms and Macbeth's chair began to inexplicably levitate, vanishing and dropping the chair as soon as Lady Macbeth turns around to investigate. We accomplished this effect using an overhead projector to backlight the actor's silhouette and a crew member under the table lifting the chair into the air. Low tech yet effective.
Or when Macbeth lifted his silver dinner platter only to find Banquo's bloody severed head underneath, as Banquo's ghost (now headless) looms over him.
HECATE THE ORACLE
One of the most iconic scenes in Macbeth would have to be the three witches around the cauldron chanting "double double toil and trouble" while brewing a stew to see into Macbeth's future. I wanted this scene to stand out a bit more, and so I decided to replace the cauldron with an old school fortune telling machine and have Macbeth's fortune come out of that instead.
Here's some watercolor concept art to give a sense of the tone I was going for.
I constructed the oracle with my father. He handled the carpentry while I did the dressing and puppet construction. The final oracle had backlighting behind the marquee, lighting within the cabinet, and a smoke machine in it to create a mysterious haze. The oracle itself was puppeteered from behind, allowing control of the head turning left/right and the arms moving up/down and left/right.
Here is the oracle onstage:
