The Saga of the Set

By Ameneh Bordi, Director


This weekend was the weekend of set building! After the great idea was presented to me by costumer Renana Fox, I went into implementation mode. The idea was to create a free-standing structure that would allow us to hang our costume accessories (scarves, hats, etc) from clothesline around the room. The problems: 1. we couldn't affix to the walls. 2. I wanted it to be able to be set up in front of the audience's eyes. 3. money!

So solutions began. Jennafer Cranmer, the other amazing costumer, had cut a lot of bamboo from her garden for me. I began by planning to build concrete bases for this bamboo. Problems with this idea: concrete is heavy! Not only would I have to move all of the bases myself in and out of the DC venue, but I also had to transport the set to NYC, and that would be a drag on my poor little car.

My father, genius engineer that he is, suggested we try umbrella stands. BRILLIANT! However, we went to home depot and a Sears, and neither had them... back home to discover, via the wonders of the internet, that Ace Hardware carried a plastic umbrella stand that was pretty cheap and could be filled with water/sand. Back out to Ace Hardware in Georgetown and Tenlytown to pick them up!

So now we have the stands and the bamboo. We tied several pieces together, set up a trial, and.... the bamboo leaned. Like, A LOT. It's bamboo, after all, strong but bendy... We tried filling the umbrella stands with sand instead of water (using a funnel made out of a local theater's subscription mailing - I will come to all your shows next year, I promise!!) That didn't really work, thought it made it a lot heaver. By this time it was pretty late on Saturday night, so I called it quits.

In the morning, my brilliant mother (very smart parents, I have) suggested something she had found on her run: DRY BAMBOO! She had dragged a piece of it from the path and it really did make a much more excellent stand. So in the afternoon, we went dry bamboo scouting. It was hot, and we looked silly, but we got some pretty great pieces of dry bamboo. I also bought a fifth umbrella stand, to cut the distance between the span in half (the upstage side was having to run 30 feet, too much for even the strongest bamboo not to sag when the clothes got added).

And today, I assembled the bundles. Each stand has one piece of strong, dry bamboo and three pieces of bendier green bamboo shoved in to the base of the umbrella stand, with a bit of cushy paper towel to make it more secure. I think it will work, we'll see at Wednesday's rehearsal!!