Wood

Oppenheimer

The wood pieces on the Oppenheimer set consisted of four doors and a wooden panel, and ran with the same colour scheme of a dark grey, and white with light grey streaks running through. The two larger farm doors at the centre of the set needed to be as light as possible as they were going to be used as a projection screen during production. After confirming the samples with the designer we started on one side of each piece by painting a thick layer of Idendan on, and then scraping it off with a wood graining tool. Once dry the two large doors were painted with white emulsion and we started putting dark grey washes along the trim of the door. A similar process was done on the other doors, we continuously painted the grey wash over them starting at the edges and blending into the centre. Once we had a base on the other two doors I took over on the door at the top of the stairs, once the wall panel became available for me to paint it to match the door. I used different shades of grey, brown and white to make more paint washes, I washed over the door to make it look like separate wood panels, and matched it in with the wooden pieces on the wall panel.

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By Tom Morton Smith

The Bute Theatre, RWCMD 2023

Director - John Haider

Costume Design - Alexandra Kay

Set Design - Jessica (Wenjing) Ji

Lighting designer - Yasmin Alayoubi

Production Photographer -Kirsten McTernan

Scenic Communicator - Kathryn Brown

Scenic Team - Kayleigh Smith, Marcha Goodchild, Milly Williams, Nico Venables

In the Forest of Starlight and Shrapnel

The design for this production had 13 pieces of wood that were burnt, old, mossy and mouldy scattered over the stage.

The pieces of wood were cut down to size from old pieces of timber that we found in construction. After they were cut I tested the wood with emulsion paint washes to see how the wood would take to the colours, and how much of that natural wood grain could be kept / enhanced, but it was decided that the wood looked to perfect and needed to have a natural old and battered look. To achieve this I took a hammer and a chisel to each piece before grouping the pieces into which ones would be painted to look burnt, mouldy and mossy.

I took on the burnt pieces first, painting the darker washes along the edges and in the deeper gauges where they would have more likely burned through, once dry I then went back over with slightly lighter washes until they were at a stage that they were ready for some off-white dry brushing to really finalise the burnt look. The mouldy pieces were painted in a similar way, I started with the darker washes in random places then painted over the whole piece with a lighter brown. Once dry I then dry brushed mouldy green colours to create the illusion of green mould growing into the wood. The mossy pieces were achieved by washing the pieces all over with the dark brown wash, then painting over with dark green emulsion colours, blending it from the edges inwards, to finish them off I dry-brushed a lighter green in areas, and splattered a light grey emulsion wash over them

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By Philip Ridley

The Bute Theatre, The Yard Theatre 2023 Designed for the Bute Theatre at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and The Yard Theatre London.

Director - Wiebke Green
Set Designer - Alivia Ryder
Costume designer - Phoebe Smith
Lighting Designer - Toby Gray
Sound Designer - Gareth Swindail-Parry
Production Photographer - Kirsten McTernen
Scenic Communicator- Milly Williams

Scenic Team - Mayzey Green, Keighley Smith, Marcha Goodchild.

Flora the Red Menace

Designed to take place for an End on, Proscenium Arc performance in the Richard Burton Theatre, Flora, the Red Menace is determined to find work during the Great Depression in Ney York. Most set elements for this performance were designed to be flown in across the stage and consisted of various different objects. A piece that I worked on was a piece of wood attached to a yellow metal grate, with watches stuck on, for a clock maker in the performance. The piece of wood needed to have a yellow tint to it, to match with the metal grate, however the designer was against us using any thick texturing materials to achieve the wood grain aesthetic for this piece. As a solution I used only emulsion to achieve the look the designer wanted, layering different colours of yellow and brown, and a wood grain tool to scrape away the bulk of the paint leaving behind the wood grain. I tested several samples of yellow over the brown ranging from different thicknesses and shades of paint, until the desired effect was achieved.

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By George Abbot & Robert Russell

The Richard Burton Theatre, RWCMD 2023

Director: Georgie Rankcom

Musical Director: Barnaby Southgate

Chorographer: Annie Southall

Music & Lyrics: John Kander & Fred Ebb

Costume Designer: Yuqi Lui

Set Designer: Phoebe Smith

Lighting: Sophie Moore

Scenic Communicator: Jessie Musker

Scenic Team: Amelia O’Toole, Robyn Smart, Lilly Gardner, Milly Williams

Production Photographer: Kirsten McTernan

Mad Margot

These posts usually found on nature walks, with the ear mark arrows to point the way were achieved by creating the wooden texture with a thick layer of Idendan and scraping it off with a wood grain tool. They were then painted with layers of dark brown washes and completed with dark green washes painted in the gauges taken out of the posts. This was for wear and tear of the posts as they would be worn down and growing things from being outside.