Dracula: My Next Chapter at the IRT

After a brief vacation, I am back in Indiana and we are all ready to tackle Dracula.  In the past few weeks, we have been working on grim-i-fy-ing the bars for Renfield's asylum cell.  

The bars (which we have lovingly christened the "Betty Bars"  as they were welded by our Master Carpenter, Betty) are supposed to look disgusting, and utterly dripping with filth.  

To accomplish this, we first mixed a raw-umber flex glue and used it to sort-of paper mache the bars by globbing and wrinkling it in places, making the bars look built-up with corrosion and slimy.

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Next, we mixed a secondary glue, quite thinner, and dipped randomly ripped up pieces of old black scrim to make a different texture.  Something even more drippy and disgusting.  










Below is a detail shot of the front of Renfield's Cell.

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And to the left is the full  Renfield cage cell in the shop. 

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We have also been working on the first steps of the "asylum guest room window."  Yes.  The insane asylum has a guest room.  Who knew? 

Anyway, the guest room window is somewhat old metal, many old chipping layers of paint.  Corroded and old, but cleaned up as best as the housekeeping staff of the asylum can for "guests."

For the first step, the corroded metallic texture, we used torn up craft paper and a paint and glue mixture similar to the Renfield cage to paper mache the entire surface and give it a little character.   

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Left is a Detail Shot of the initial treatment for the asylum guest room.  


Check out those rivets! So cool!



Check back for updates on the next steps.  
I'll post the final shots as we finish. 

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   This show has lots of tricks up its sleeves, and has a great look to it.  I can't wait to see it all put together and under lights.  One great element is going to be huge bat wings that come in from the wings.  They have a steel frame and are webbed with all kinds of plastic and fabric including bobbinet and scrim.  They will be translucent white when lit from behind, and a darker red when lit from the front.  The textures will also change with the position of the lights, due to the layering of different textures of fabrics.