Monday, January 06, 2014

Look What I Found!

At the expense of my smart phone, I discovered some old photos that I had never posted.  While coaching soccer a couple days ago, I carefully placed my phone in my coat pocket and laid my coat on a bench where it seemed safe.  I was wrong. A strong bump on the court sent a player flying into the bench, knocking it over onto my coat . . . and then the player landed on top of the bench, just for good measure.  I later discovered my Samsung Galaxy was destroyed in the incident.  When I returned home, I dug out an old my old phone and swapped SIM cards.  Today, while going through the old phone, I discovered a bunch of old photos I had forgotten about.  Among them were these photos of my students at DaVinci working on the set for Sweeney Todd in April 2012.  I had never posted them, so, as they say, better late than never. It was a fun set to work on. We had a small budget, but the students were creative and generated some great ideas. The Director, Adam Slee, asked us to design the set around the following lyrics from "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd":
Inconspicuous Sweeney was,
quick, and quiet and clean he was.
Back of his smile, under his word,
Sweeney heard music that nobody heard.
Sweeney pondered and Sweeney planned,
like a perfect machine he planned,
Based on the idea of the "perfect machine" the set evolved into an industrial looking concoction of gears and wheels and trap doors.  The Robotics Club even joined in and helped construct a revolving floor.  I am still amazed at what we were able to accomplish with a little money and a lot of ingenuity.