We needed a coffin for Eva Peron --> We had our annual haunted house in our black box studio theatre ---> The Forbis & Dick Funeral Home donated a damaged coffin to Mr. Pusch for the haunted house ---> He let us borrow it for Evita! So we can check off another prop from the list. Zero cost, free delivery! Can't beat that!
All I had to do was mount it on a wheeled cart. But rather than build one from scratch, I took my dangerous DeWalt cordless reciprocating saw and cut my rolling workbench in half! Diagonally! I can always build a new workbench someday.
In the photo below, you can see where I cut my tool cart at a 30 degree slant, so that the audience will be able to see Eva's body in the coffin. (The cart said "Timbuktu" on it because it appeared in a children's musical last year as a shipping crate!)
BUT, it wasn't as simple as that.
On closer inspection, I discovered that the coffin was stuffed with excelsior!!! Lots of it! Argh! This is thin wood shavings that was used as packing materials before the invention of styrofoam, (recall the scene with the infamous "ladies leg table lamp" in the movie "A Christmas Story"). Well anyway, as any Boy Scout can tell you, wood shavings are HIGHLY combustible!!! And this violates my theater fire codes, so it had to go.
So I had Kris and Madison pull all the excelsior out of the coffin. It was kind of creepy, by the way. (Click photos to enlarge).
In fact, this rather typical casket had enough excelsior inside it to fill two 55 gallon trash bags! This wood fiber will be saved for use on campfires and backpacking trips.
We then filled the void left in the coffin with old backdrops that had been thoroughly sprayed with a flame retardant. The ugly dolly under the casket will be hidden by fancy fabric and flowers.
No comments:
Post a Comment