Cacti Forest

Script analysis of chosen scene



As seen from the extract above the Father travels through a forest. This part of the narrative is depicted within my set design through the concept of 'Cacti Forest'. Throughout the design process the idea of having the character of the father actually travelling through the a forest on stage has always been stirring. Within my original idea I had a forest made of lion's tails to depict the Lion's presence through this set piece. Although since delving into genre's this concept of a moving forest has become quite a subjective piece. Now set in the Wild West my forest is made of Cacti (giant of course - to add to the fairytale spirit). Main idea is to have 3 cacti per truck.

For this moment on stage to work the performers and scenic pieces would be synchronised in movement. Take for example, the father begins the scene in front of the first gauze before slowly starting his journey up stage (through the 'Cacti Forest'). The first gauze disappears to where the two Cacti trucks form a pathway for him to follow, these part side ways allowing him to continue up stage, as he reaches the second gauze this disappears to reveal the grand tepee of the Lion Prince.

Producing the Cacti trucks
Surrounded by dimensions and reference material I set to making the cacti. First a skeleton was made from wire (strong, 20 gauge beading wire - good for baking!)



Next I covered the wire in Fimo - FIMO PUPPEN. This type of modelling clay is oven-hardening and is particularly rich in contours, very expressive and stable in shape. After the basic shape was established I indented lines into the clay to gain the cacti texture as seen in one of my research images. A small dress pin was an adequate size and easy to control to achieve this effect.



Once finished they were oven cooked for 30minutes at 110C.



A lick of paint and the forest was nearly complete!



I gave the cacti a base coat and then applied a buff white mixed with sap green colour detailing on top, lightly applying and then rubbing with paper towel to achieve the desired effect.

Grass was added to the bottom of the cacti to add to the natural forest like essence. These were anchored to the pre made trucks with super glue and added to the scenographic model.



In reality these cacti would be approximately 4.5meters tall. In comparison to the figure these would be huge! But this is exactly how I intended it to be in order to portray the grand, overpowering, fairytale like forest effect upon the audience.