Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts presents Disney’s stage musical, Beauty and the Beast, with music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, and book by Linda Woolverton. Adapted from Walt Disney Pictures' animated film Beauty and the Beast, which in turn had been based on the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast" by French author Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont. Beauty and the Beast tells the story of an unkind prince who has been magically transformed into an unsightly creature as punishment for his selfish ways. To revert to his true human form, the Beast must learn to love a bright, beautiful young lady who he has imprisoned in his enchanted castle before it is too late.
Beauty and the Beast was directed by Scott Michaels at Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts. All design, fabrication, and paperwork tracking was done by myself as the sole props designer and fabricator. Any furniture or set dressing pieces were reallocated to the scenic department.
Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts is an 850-seater, in-the-round theater with audience members that are as close as two feet away from the stage, so all technical elements must have a higher level of plausibility than something typically seen from fifty feet away on a proscenium stage.
Although many props could be pulled from WWCA’s expansive props storage, many needed repairs or complete overhauls. A few of these projects are the torches, magic mirror, and enchantress staff. The torches in storage didn’t have any electrical elements before, whereas the staff and mirror did but weren’t hidden well. The torches were crafted from LED tape extracted from flickering-flame bulbs, an ornamental bedpost, metal wire, and a plastic cup encased in gel and window privacy film. The texture was created with a flour and paint mixture and used interchangeably with black and silver spray paint. A large hole was bored into the center of the bedpost to hide any exposed wiring and leave space for a button.
The magic mirror had the battery pack on the outside of the mirror, and the staff disguised the wires with Styrofoam. I didn’t love either of their previous designs, so I gave both of them new LED tape and casings made from EVA craft foam. I had never worked with solder before, so these took some trial and error to put together. Still, overall, the ending result hid the electrical elements and protected them in a well-fabricated casing.
Other projects from this show included dressing the carts for the opening scene in the village, building candelabras from the scenic designer’s original sketches, and dressing the bed and dining table. The attention to detail necessary for theatre in the round was a welcomed change and challenge. I had a lot of fun putting this show together with the incredible inventory that Wagon Wheel possesses.
Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts Professional Theatre
Director: Scott Michaels
Choreographer: Scott Michaels
Set Designer: David Lepor
Lighting Designer: SeifAllah Salotto-Cristobal
Costumes by: Maine State Music Theatre Costume Rentals
Wigs/MakeUp Designer: Jen Dow
Props Designer: Jordan Ingersoll
Photographer: Scott Michaels
Copyright © 2024 Jordan Ingersoll’s Theatrical & Artistic Portfolio - All Rights Reserved.
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