When I retired in 2000, I started volunteering about 20 hours a week as a carpenter for a local community theater, the Sunset Playhouse in Elm Grove, Wisconsin. If it weren't for volunteers, community theaters wouldn't exist. We build eight shows a season, and I do most all the finish carpentry like crown, picture rail, chair rail and base.
I work three days a week doing the bulk of the carpentry work. Besides basic set construction, I build custom-furniture pieces. Sometimes the set designer gives me detailed plans, and sometimes he or she just gives me a picture and says: "I want one or two of these." My challenge is to make what’s in the picture.
Walls 12-ft. tall
I mill baseboard, chair rail and picture rail on either a table saw with dado blades or with the shaper, depending on the desired shapes. Walls of our sets are 12 ft. tall, so we make crown molding from a combination of moldings to be 6 in. high. The major challenge is in cutting, fitting and installing all that molding. As with any house, none of the corners are a true 90 degrees, so I use an angle finder to determine the angle of the corners and cut accordingly, both inside and outside corners. Almost all construction is out of 1-in. pine, ¾-in. plywood and ¼-in. luan. On occasion, we will use some ¾-in. MDF.
In addition to walls and molding, I routinely build door frames and casement windows that are double hung, six-lite, eight-lite — whatever is required. I make window seats, kitchen cabinets, counters, spiral tables and stairs of various lengths, both straight and curved.
Among the more unusual stage elements I have built are:
• tables that are cut in half as part of a cut-away room,
• cut-away walls
• trees, yes trees. I have built a couple 8-ft. trees and an 18-ft. tree
• collapsing lounge chair
• break-away stairs
• break-away stair railing
• light switches that throw sparks when touched
• stone walls
• stone fireplaces with hidden doors for a safe
Another unusual project was redoing our dust-collection system from figuring out the flow and static pressure requirements to the size of the blower. We removed the old unit and saved the cyclone for reuse after doing some modifications to it. We went from having a blower inline before the cyclone to having a blower mounted on top of the cyclone. It is all steel pipe with a manifold for the piping to come together from the table saw, miter saw, radial arm saw and shaper. All the blast gates are located by the manifold instead of at each machine. This takes some of the long run of pipe out of the circuit when the gates are closed to distant machines.
Three-week turn-around
I usually work alone in the day. Other volunteers come in the evening as most of them work during the day. Typically, we have three weeks to tear down the last show and construct on stage the new show. The evening volunteers come in for three weeks for two hours per evening to work on the set. They may do some construction, but mostly they do the painting and assembling of sets. The set designer is there in the evening, and I usually consult with him for about an hour each day. The construction plans and ground plan are emailed to me; they show how the set will be laid out. The designer also builds a ¼-in. scale model of each set, which I use for reference. Our communication is mostly through email, with a small time frame for discussing construction issues.
I enjoy volunteering at the community theater because it gives me a real sense of accomplishment. This is particularly true when I watch the show and see how all the elements come together. It is good to hear the people in the audience make compliments on the set. And then there is the nice perk of getting to play with all the great toys in the shop. Finally, the volunteers have become just like an extended family, and we get together for several functions a year. They make the atmosphere in the theater energetic. Unlike most work places where workers are there because they have to be, we are here because we want to be.
To learn more about the Sunset Playhouse, a nonprofit community theater in Elm Grove, Wisconsin, visit www.sunsetplayhouse.com.
Enjoy scenes from the last eight shows at the Sunset Playhouse by visiting Dave Schumacher’s Web site at http://home.roadrunner.com/~thewoodwizard.
Building Your Basic Set
The process of building a set starts with the designer. He or she reads the script and determines the time period and what the layout should be, including what the scene outside the doors and windows should be. The designer also decides on doors and windows and their placement as well as what lights, furniture and special effects are required.
After the design is completed, the designer and director meet and make adjustments. This can take several meetings before they are both satisfied with the plan. After the plan has been approved, the designer determines what has to be built for this set and orders materials. He or she uses the plans to build a ¼-in. scale model of the set, which I use as a 3-D reference when building.
I usually start building the more complicated items first; as we get closer to opening, the evening volunteers can build some of the easier items. The plans are all printed ¼-in. or ½-in. scale on 8-1/2. x 11-in. paper. The designer emails to me the plans I need for the day. I print them at home and take them to the theater. We try to build sub-assemblies in the shop and move them on stage for show time.
For a two-story set, we use platforms (4x8 or smaller) with a ¾-in. plywood deck over 2x4 framing. These platforms are bolted together to get the size of floor we need for the second story. These are supported on 2x4 legs, six per platform, at a height of at least 8 ft. Then the walls are erected on top of that. After all walls are up and painted, I install all the crown, picture rail, chair rail and baseboard as needed. The side walls never meet the back walls at a 90 because the side walls always flair out, the rear part of the wall angling toward center stage, like this \___/. This allows viewers sitting at the ends of the rows to see the entire set and all the action. — D.S.