Set Design and Construction
For my school’s production of The Music Man, Kelly Freer and were in charge of designing and leading the construction of the set. Our director/teacher wanted a frame like structure, but besides that she let us go in whatever direction we liked. We had a few ideas, but none seemed quite right. In the end we went with a simple, large platform that could be separated in the middle to create new scenes, such as Marian’s house or the hotel. The frame in the background creates the idea of the town and all of it’s houses without having to create complex scenery. The signs were also interchangeable to easily show different sets. We decorated with flags to show the patriotic American town and vintage framing. We had to create three new sets of stairs, as well as 6 platforms and the framing, then paint the entire thing black and the framing white. Then the signs were hand painted.
You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to make today worth remembering.
Costume and Makeup
I was in charge of hair, makeup, and costumes during the production. Leading up the costume parade, I researched 1910s hair styles and makeup. I then taught the other costume and makeup crew how to help the actors. At the same time, I made the Indian costumes for 7 of the actors, organized the costumes we already had, took inventory so we knew what we had, and gave out costume pieces to actors. The costumes we couldn’t make we ordered and I had to take care of them. They needed to be ironed/steamed and hug up in the correct spots so during productions when we weren’t needed, we organized. During the show, there were multiple quick costume changes. We had to be ready for all of them and get the actors into the right outfits in time.
