Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland - 2019 -

Birmingham Children’s Theatre - Sloss Furnaces

Director: Brandon Bruce

Scenic Designer: Ashley Ann Woods

Lighting Designer: James Arakas

Costume Designer: Emmie Phelps Thompson

The Arch

IMG_1556.jpeg

We built a 32’ wide by 18’ tall rectangular curved arch. We achieved this by building 14 individual cube wedge pieces with 1 center keystone. Each cube piece bolted together during load in. The arch had to be self supporting because of differing venues. The cubed wedges were wrapped in muslin and had painted slats made out of a cardboard material to reduce the weight of the wedges. We also built in LED Bars to be able to individually control the light in each wedge piece.

IMG_1526.jpeg
IMG_1594.jpeg

One of the wedge pieces getting slats installed and marked before being pulled off to be painted.

IMG_1651.jpeg

Wedge pieces getting slats installed after painting is completed.

IMG_1655.jpeg

The 2 side towers in the shop getting dry fit together and LED Bars installed before Load In.

IMG_1660.jpeg

The top section of the arch getting LED Bars installed and tested before Load In.

IMG_1662.jpeg

View inside of the top section of the arch with LED Bars installed.

Load in

This show toured to 2 different locations in Birmingham. The 1st show took place at Birmingham’s Historic Sloss Furnaces. The 2nd show took place in the food court of the Riverchase Galleria in Birmingham. The biggest challenge I faced going into load in at The Galleria was how to load in the arch with a 150’ glass ceiling that was impossible to access, eliminating any option that involved flying the upper half. The best option that was available was to attach the top section of the arch to the scissor lift that was provided to us to raise it and drive it in between the 2 side towers of the arch and lower it into place.