Over the past week and a half, Middle School students have been hard at work collaborating on set and prop design for the amazing play they wrote: The Masamune Mystery.

Under the guidance of myself, Mr. Fuchs, and Mr. Brown, students used a range of materials and techniques to construct, paint, and arrange various parts for this complex and colorful set. The largest set display piece was the painted canvas backdrop; which required lots of preliminary planning, sketching, and hours of painting with colorful acrylics to complete the landscape scene. We also constructed a movable component to the backdrop in which cardboard sheep were attached to a pulley system made from string and grommets, and were used to depict sheep running across a meadow. Other hand-made props included a city constructed from cardboard and LED lights, a car made out of foam board, a smoothie shop bar constructed from cardboard, burlap and fake luau hay grass, a cluster of palm trees made out of cardboard tubes and layers of leaves cut from green construction paper, and various hand drawn or laser-cut signs.

Throughout each stage of the design and building process, students gained hands-on experience of how much work and problem solving goes into scenic design for theater productions. Theatre is a visual medium, and the scenic designers and creative team are the driving force for bringing the vision of the show to life. We are all so impressed with how well the students have worked together to bring this play together in such a creative and inspiring way!