Tom Sawyer Whitewash Fence

[zmb]

I'm doing the lighting design for Tom Sawyer at my junior high and I meant with the director tonight and discussed the set. For those not familiar with the classic, having a worn-out fence on stage that gets whitewashed during the show is an essential component. The director and I are looking for a way for it to be beat up and then transition to look normal and freshly whitewashed. I'm not sure how big the fence will be, but likely movable by one person. The solution that first came to mind and that I have to look into to see if it would be feasible would be to have a white fence and then use a mini striplight with MR16 or MR11 lamps gelled dark ambers with some blackwrap cut out to add texture. Can anyone suggest something new or add on to my idea?

 

[chausman]

When we did it, we painted the slats white on one side, and dirty colored on the other, and the were all only velcro'd on when the group of boys gather around, the just pull it off and flip it around. I keeps everything the same lighting wise, but with the action happening downstage, you hardly noticed. I saw every rehearsal that they had the set, and every show, and I never actually saw them flip the boards, even while looking for it.

Tom Sawyer is a fun show...good luck!

 

[65535]

I would suggest painting it white then adding some "dirt" and literally have the actors clean the dirt off making the fence appear freshly painted.

In order to get a very durable paint mix 2 parts satin water based urethane with 1 part flat white paint. The paint coating will be very tough and will clean up fine. You could use some little muddied water to make the fence dirty before the show.

Alternatively you could simply use the urethane as a top coat to seal the paint.

 

[jungle16jim]

We did much the same thing, although our boards had a 1/2 inch hole drilled through them and were held on by a screw head (less noise than velcro). The audience always asked me how we did it--simplest trick in the book.

 

[zmb]

The director wants it done with lighting to keep from having anything that could make a mess on stage. Going to have it painted in high gloss white paint with some small instruments gelled R99 and other dingy colors and then a set of N/C instruments.