The Devil's Disciple images
Steve, the sound designer, planned to set up a "Foley table" and do sound effects for the show live. At right you see him testing his wind machine. When he was putting it together I kept wondering where the propeller was, but a Foley wind machine is not the same as the kind they use in the movies. It makes a wind noise but no wind. The slatted drum rubs against the canvas and produces a very satisfactory "wheesh, whoosh" sound.
In the end, the Foley table had to go because Steve couldn't find 10 square feet for it. The production used recorded sound effects. Sigh.
Don had to fit a fireplace into no space at all. He built up layers of styro board and later painted bricks on the material. You can see the finished product in the first photo on the next page. The little turntable got a fireplace, too; it was deep enough that we could hang a kettle in it.
A lot of artifice went into this show. As you'll see on later pages, for example, the costumer put a squad of English soldiers in uniforms borrowed from the university's marching band. Windows were glazed in plexiglas, clouded with spray adhesive (important because what was behind them was distracting pieces of other scenes). Electric candles got dribbled with hot glue that looked like melted wax.
One of my favorite little bits was the noose that the Brits planned to use to hang Derek. Everybody wanted to make sure it wouldn't really be lethal if something went wrong, so I rigged a failure link into it. The rope was held up by a loop of florist's Velcro, strong enough to stay up but weak enough to let go if Derek's neck pulled hard on it. (I tested it but didn't tell Derek that. He stood very, very still during the scene.)
The executioner's technique was to stand Derek on a cart, affix the noose and pull the cart away. Don built the cart from odd pieces of scrap. We're now trying to get another theater company to take it away and give it to Tevye in their production of Fiddler on the Roof. The cart weighs probably 125 pounds and has a steel axle, but you can see how vital it is not to step on the end away from the handles.
On the next page I'll show you the five looks that the audience saw. I've also made another series of pages containing some photos taken during a performance.
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