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The (curious case of the) Watson Intellegence

University of MN Duluth
Department of Theatre
Scenic Design by Kia Lor

Production Photos

Photo credit, Abby Cummins

Pictures feature; Wes Anderson, Chelsea Campbell and Dylan Rugh

Technical Challenges

This show takes place in different time periods with characters from literature, historical figures as well as characters in the world of the play.  Scenically, Designer Kia Lor had to come up with a space which tied together a look which could span time as well provide a flexibility for different locations.

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One of the challenges was making the "wrought iron" arches called for in the scenic design.  Another challenge was how some of the prop and set pieces would function in a fluid way keeping with the variable nature of time within the play.  Below you will find both an solution for making the arches and one solution for a self-braking couch used in the production.

Arch Shop Drawing

Click to enlarge

This show was entered into the KC/ACTF competition as a participating production meaning if selected the scenery had to be able to tour to the annual festival.  In our production, we had these arches which were supposed to mimic decorative wrought iron arches found between posts, in railway stations, and other locations.  They had to be light weight and sturdy.  I chose to use extruded foam board so we could cut the arches and voids easily.

Process Photos
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A "hot wire cutter" uses a Ni-Chrome wire which can be heated to cut through foam.  For profile cuts, a template is made from Masonite and used as a guide.  I had the shop set the hot wire cutter upright like a scroll or band saw so the wire could be used to make both the internal and external cuts.  For the internal cuts, a hole was drilled into a space.  The wire was then fed through the hole and reattached to cutter.  Once the wire was hot, the entire arch was moved around on the bed while the wire follows the template.  After the cut was finished, the wire was disconnected and moved to the next area.

Self-locking Rolling Couch

Since the play switches locations and times frequently, some of the props had to be changeable or movable.  The couch pictured at right was one of those pieces.  The director didn't really want to see stagehands carrying a sofa around so making it roll was needed.  Making the sofa roll is easy, but we also want it to lock once it was in place.  To accomplish this I built a caster system I found in a trade publication.

Self-locking Rolling Couch

This system uses a specialty caster commonly used in the airline industry on service carts.  There is a spring loaded pin in the plate of the caster which pushes on a plate locking the caster.  In our system we used four casters mounted inside the black box under the couch.  Each caster had a small pneumatic (pressurized air) cylinder mounted to it.  When the system was engaged by flipping a toggle switch on the back of the couch arm, the cylinder would press against the brake pin locking the caster.

Close up of the cylinder and brake pin.

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