Imagine this scenario:
The curtain opens to dramatic music, and the players dance, sing, and bounce around an empty stage.
There are no colorful props—no appropriate storefronts, houses, staircases, ships, merry-go-rounds, city streets, parks—nothing to lend visual authenticity to the production. In the Sound of Music, where’s the abbey? Or a staircase with seven charming children singing goodnight to party guests? In Some Like it Hot, where is the mysterious cabaret? Or a train car? In Brigadoon, where are the landscapes symbolizing Scottish moors? In Fiddler on the Roof, where are the rooftops?
Woodchuck Club members Don Espeseth (left), N.21, and Chuck Bayser, N.11, build dock pilings for the Carousel set at Millgrove Woodshop. (Photo by Chris LaPelusa/Sun Day)
The next time you go to a Sun City Theater Club musical production, while you enjoy the music and acting, take a look at the environment in which the players perform. Think about how the “props” are not just afterthoughts tossed in to “augment” or “assist” the performers. Rather, they are equal partners with everything else; they are absolutely vital to the success of the event.
This is where a set designer and the Woodchucks get going.
Carousel is the next Theater Club production, scheduled for November 4-6 in Drendel Hall. When directors and performers got together earlier this fall to begin planning and rehearsing, they discovered they would need (obviously) a carousel, house and store facades, a hay baler, an ice cream and ticket stand, a dock, fencing, and a barker stand, among other things.
Enter Jim Rice, amateur architect and set designer.
“I’ve worked with machinery and designed things, and it’s just something I enjoy doing,” he said. “I’m a member of the Theater Club, and I met very early with the director to go over the kind of props we will need. I made some preliminary sketches, and the director and performers reviewed them with me, and we agreed on the details. Then I prepared the final drawings and gave them to the Woodchucks for construction.”
A team of up to 40 Woodchucks workers is now building the items using Rice’s architectural-style drawings, which specify the exact size and style of each item and the materials to be used.
Coordinating the work at the Millgrove Woodshop on Sun City Boulevard is Al La Pelusa, Woodchucks board member and an amateur craftsman. “I assemble the teams of specialists that do the actual construction work and schedule the times to get the actual work done,” he said. “We are involved in many projects for the community and for residents. We usually start about 6-7 weeks before the show and work all day Wednesdays each week, and then add days toward the end to make sure we get things done.
“We build large items, such as a carousel, which we need for the upcoming show, in sections, so they can be easily transported to Drendel Hall or the basement of the wood shop for painting and decorating by club members before it is set up in Drendel for final dress rehearsals.”
(Photo by Chris LaPelusa/Sun Day)
The Woodchucks have built the sets for all the Theater Club shows since the club was formed in 2003. This includes authentic sets for Sound of Music, Some Like it Hot, Fiddler on the Roof, Oklahoma, and Brigadoon, among others. The group has presented more than a dozen musicals over the past seven years. “We have added a lot of realism to the shows,” Rice said. “That’s an important part of each production.” In addition to his set-designer role, he has performed in almost all the shows himself.
The Woodchucks actually is a community-service organization that operates its facility much like a small commercial factory. “We are mostly specialists: one guy can cut a wheel on a lathe, another guy is good at making a window or door frame,” La Pelusa said. “We work in teams assigned to build specific items.”
“We do as much as we can for the community and for residents,” La Pelusa said. “We have built cabanas for the tennis courts, a shed for the softball group, and a sign at Meadow View Lodge. Every fall, we also build toys for an Elgin charity group. We build puzzles, race cars, boats, train sets, spin tops, a scarecrow kit that can be put together, bird feeders, and toy planes and helicopters. We are so busy, someone has to manage our time, and that is where I come in.”
It all adds up to professional products, built mostly by skilled and dedicated amateurs.
