Clue
Greenbrier Valley Theatre
Director: Courtney Susman-Frye
Scenic Designer: Kyle Dixon
Costume Design: Jenna Fawn Brown
Props Designer: Lewis Bethune
Production Photos by Sheena Pendley
Murder Weapons (from left: soft rope, foam lead pipe, real candlestick, foam wrench, rubber knife)
Actors: Jennifer Byrne, Michael Liebhauser, Adrianna Milbrath, Eric Fritzius & Wendye Clarendon
Full stage with Kitchen and Lounge Wagons. The Lounge has a full size, painting door.
Full stage with Library and Billiards Room wagons. The library has a painting that slides to one side revealing the Evidence Panel
Original sketch for the Evidence Panel, designed to look like the center of the game board and the pieces.
FInal Evidence Panel. A cutout in the wall allows the painting to slide to one side revealing the Evidence Panel. The two panels sit in a piece of hogstrough on the upstage side of the wall and are moved by a stagehand.
35mm Film Rolls, made of 1" dowel, snaps and paint.
Paper Props. From top left: photo negatives (cheat laminated), invitation to the party, Ms Scarlet's business card, and board game tally sheet.
Dinner place settings, as originally handed over to stage management. Part of pre-production work.
Final dinner table. Table built by scenic at total of 12', with cheat reupholstered dining chairs, 6 settings, and wrap around skirt. Chairs lift up onto the wagons, under the table, so that the two halves can roll on/off from both wings in one movement. (Actors: Eric Fritzius, Mary Malaney, M. Elena Maddy)
This base dresser was used to make a mock period TV set, which was then fitted with a bulb on the upstage side so it would flash on the actors face as a real TV would.
Final TV, with antenna (plastic bowl, floral foam, skewers, and cork) and remote (wood, foam, hot glue, and paint). The back of the TV was dressed with a grate, power cord (tie line), and a plastic plate as a speaker. Wheels were also added, as it is only in one scene.
Wrench and Candlestick. Both hit-safe, carved and painted foam. The wrench is made of green foam and the candlestick of pool noodles. See bellow from progress photos.
Lead pipe murder weapon, also hit-safe, made of a pool noodle, pvc pipe to hold the shape, and tape to achieve the texture. See below for individual picture. (Actor: Conor McGiffin)
This chair for the Billiards room was the correct style, but not the right color, so we chose to cheat reupholster it.
Completed cheat reupholstered chair. Finished in one afternoon, painted using a mix of latex paint and fabric softener. The treatment did not crack or show any damage through the run of the show.
Lead pipe, hit-safe weapon. Pool noodle around pvc pipe, with tape for texture, and paint.
Candlestick in progress. Utilized layering, carving and rubber bands to get the shape.
1960's style appetizers in progress. Foam jellos and spam kebabs made of green foam and pool noodle.
Finished appetizer options. From left: Charcuterie board (final choice), pineapple and spam skewers (cut), and ham, cheese, and olive jellos with crackers (cut.)
Pre-production delivery table, categorized with labels and options. 90% of the show was delivered for first rehearsal, not counting furniture. 2 options to choose from where possible.
Comprehensive props list. Incomplete items will be highlighted in yellow in the progress column to track workflow. Notation for when/where requests came from will be tracked in the notes column (ie rehearsal report, request of director.)
Bottom of the same props list. Not pictured here, a column to the far right for outside notes (ie from the production manager or stage management directly.)
Furniture options, sent to the scenic designer as a pdf. Red circle indicate the ones that were chosen. This pdf helps structure design meetings, and support of campus designers.
Furniture options, shared as a pdf. Notes here are direct from the designer during a virtual meeting.
Furniture options, sent to the scenic designer as a pdf. Red circle indicate the ones that were chosen. Notes here set reminders about specific issues not clear in the rendering.
Purchase options are typically communicated side to side in a pdf. All options documents are emailed to the applicable parties and uploaded to Google Drive. Primary props list will also reference any additional document like this in the notes column.
All paper props were designed digitally, through Canva, then printed as needed.