Recently in production was this year's musical, Seussical. Once again, Spring High is entered in the Tommy Tune Awards, sponsored by Theatre Under the Stars to promote excellence in high school musical theatre programs. The set design proved to be our most ambitious project since Noises Off in 1999. The project was so involved that we decided to start work on it, in part, as far back as November. Due to the holiday concert season, however, nothing could be put on the stage until four days before Winter Break. We did as much as possible in the shop and stored it until time to move it onto the stage. It wasn't long before the shop was full!

I wanted the design to be simple in appearance, but complex enough to offer many levels and interesting looks to the performance. My daughter said that Dr. Seuss' illustrations look like a train wreck about to happen. Everything is just a little off balance. That is what I wanted. The paint scheme was inspired by the cover of one of his books.

The set incorporated three trap doors.

The trap doors were attached to their frames in the shop.

The central unit is a stack of round platforms resembling a wedding cake. This had to be carefully drawn out to fit properly.

The set required two long ramps. The supports were constructed well ahead of time and stored in the shop.

After the last concert, we were able to move onto the stage and begin work on the wedding cake. First was the cutout of the stacked decks.

It was something of a relief to finally be able to put the cake together and find that it all fit!

Anytime raised platforms are used, care must be taken so that they can be used safely by the cast. In a musical, that means many people dancing and jumping around on them. Support from underneath is critical.

These decks required trap doors, so they had to be at least 48 inches tall. Bracing beneath them is critical.

Ramp A gets its tread surface of three quarter inch plywood.

The supports for ramp B are laid out.

After the tread was tacked on and shaped, it was secured tightly to its supports to take out any "bounce" when walked on.

Trap door C gets tested.

The cross supports for ramp B are installed after they are beveled to 12 dgrees on the table saw.

In keeping with the slightly off balance idea, the bridge appeared to have no support under one corner. However, all is not what it seems. Great care was taken to support it properly so that it would not collapse.

A reciprocating saw was used to shape the plywood treads of the ramps. Care was taken to follow the line closely so that the finished product looked smooth.

The finished product looked pretty good. At this point, it was time for Winter Break.

Upon returning from a much needed holiday, construction resumed. The peekaboo doors were fabricated in the shop.

The peekaboo doors were installed on the upstage raised decks.

Escape ladders were installed in the rear to give actors access to the peekaboo doors.

The weeding cake platform gets its final wrap of hardboard.

All the decks and ramps recieved a cover made of polystyrene foam insulation. It was effective and inexpensive.

The flufella trees were duplicated from book illustrations using 3" schedule 20 sewer pipe. A heat gun was utilized to heat and bend the pipe into shape.

The trees were then installed to the floor using 3" toilet flanges screwed to the floor.

Six colors of latex paint were used duplicated directly from book illustrations. Most of the application was done with rollers.

The paint scheme was that of ever increasing circles. We found difficulty in maintaing the proper curvature on such a large scale. The finished set may be viewed in action on the page entitled Seussical.