Cassandra Phillips: Scenic Artist
 
As part of the magical set for A Midsummer Night's Dream,  Michael Giannio designed a larger than life stump for the fairies to frolic around and Titania to sleep on.  The stump was a major project beginning with a 2x4 wooden base which we sent to Pacific Spray Foam, a company that coated our armature with a light expandable foam similar to Great Stuff.
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In this picture, you can see the true scale of our magic stump.  

PictureLead scenic artist Thayne Abraham demonstrates our cheeseclothing technique.







The foam was beautiful and just what the doctor ordered.  It gave us a great base to work from.  We could easily carve down into it in areas to give it some deep grooves.  After some of the roundness had been knocked down, we began adding bark texture using strips of cheescloth dipped in glue.  

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Assistants Leah Ramilliano and Anna Maria Aburto transform foam into bark.
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Next, we coated the stump in -our favorite- Jaxsan!  

This would not only weatherproof the stump, since Midsummer is an outdoor show, but it also unified the stump aesthetically and took us another step in the direction of realism.  

With all those bumps and grooves, it took a while.  

PictureCloseup of the stump's removable roots.
Our biggest issue was getting all of these thick layers of texture to dry in a timely manner.  Since our shop is lovingly called "the sauna,"  we brought it in, cranked the heat even more, and basically cooked the giant stump in our giant oven.  

Then, all that was left was to paint it.  
We based it in brown with some added highlights and shadows.  The scenic designer, Michael Giannio, also requested we work some of the floor colors into it to make it look "rooted."  No pun intended.  

Our lead scenic, Thayne Abraham put the finishing touches on this beautiful piece.  He deepened the shadows, added some variation in the wood, and even added some green fungus-like areas.  

Cassandra Phillips: Scenic Artist