Matilda

Big Walnut High School Theater Department

The concept: when designing the show I chose to focus on where Matilda passion, and where she gets her powers...books!! I tried to cram as many books as I could in to the set design.

Set Design: To help with the multiple scene locations of the musical I created a giant 8’x8’x8’ cube that could be opened like a book and rotated to the desired set location. For the library,  I created bookshelves on the side of the giant cubes. I had the students paint foam "books" in different hues of red and white. This created a wonderful backdrop for the librarian scene in which the acrobats perform in the red and white circus tent, but still grounds you in the library. The cubes also opened up like a real book does to display some of the smaller scenes, like the Trunchbull's office and Miss Honey’s home.

Prop Design: The Cake: I created the cake so that the sections of the cake can be compressed down and give the illusion that Bruce is eating all of the cake. I created a serving tray that has a little bit of a lip around it so that when the "cake" is depressed, it vanishes from the view of the audience. The cake structure was created by 3 collapsible magician’s top hats, that were taken apart and rewrapped with a brown fabric around the shape of a quarter piece of cake. Then, a food-safe brown vinyl was added to the top, so frosting could be added each show for the actor to actually eat and be able to make a mess.