I'm not sure an electric chair is the most appropriate post for this holiday...but what holiday would be?
Today I'm digging into the archives and sharing the electric chair I created for the 2008 production of Assassins at The Green Room Theatre. If you're not familiar with the show, it's a Sondheim musical that opens with a murderous carnival game played by the men and women who have attempted (and/or succeed) in assassinating a US President. So we weren't going for realism.
I believe I spent $27 on the entire scenic design for the show and remember spending exactly $2 on this chair.
Step one: Find a free chair. This chair was a school desk in a previous life. I added arm rests and extended the head rest. (The actor using the chair was 6'7".)
Step two: Find the cheapest buckles possible. I purchased two belts from the local DAV, then sanded leather and painted the metal to match.
Step three: Paint the chair. This was by far the worst smelling black paint I have ever used. It was undated and in the back corner of the basement. My nose is crinkling as I type.
Admittedly the chair looked a bit funky in the daylight. But it never appeared onstage without the actor, and the lighting was dark. So for 2 hours work and 2 dollars I was pretty happy.
Designing for The Green Room was a fabulous experience. I learned the realities of tight timeframes and minimal budgets that summer. Most of all, I realized that scenic design was my favorite area of the production process.
Happy Hunting.
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