The Woodshop Shed

High School Musical "Newsies" Sets

Furnished content.
(from Lumberjocks.com)


Hi All,While this isn't fine woodworking, it is mostly constructed out of wood. I've been involved with my kids and their High School drama productions. This year's musical was Disney's “Newsies”, and I was in charge of the set design and construction.The main set pieces were three 10' wide x 10' deep x 22.5' tall towers. We used metal stage trusses as the main supports and the rest was 2×4 and 2×6 platforms and 2×10s for the stair cases. There was a total of twelve platforms and twelve staircases on the three towers. Everything was built on jigs so that the kids could build it fast and so it would all fit together. Each tower rolls on 12 heavy duty casters and are moved with a 440lb electric cable hoist. And finally, each of the three openings in the front of the towers has an electric powered screen that rolls up and down.You can see the towers in action here.Other pieces built for this show include a vintage “bellows” camera out of cherry, 48” diameter wagon wheels from 3/4” plywood and some old stair spindles for our newspaper cart, “Pulitzer's” desk (our painting crew made it look like cherry), a pair of 10' tall doors that fly in on cables, and a pair of 4' x 12' x 10' two level rolling carts.If you do have an opportunity to do something like this, it can be very rewarding working with the kids and teaching them how to work with power tools and do basic construction. It is also fun letting the lead actor fumble with a screw gun for 5 minutes before telling him he has it in reverse! ( ^ 8Now that this is all over, I can get back to making sawdust in my own shop!

0 comment(s)