Mamma Mia

I was the Scenic Artist for Mamma Mia the 2020 Production by WAAPA that never got to happen. Due to unforeseen legal circumstances the show got changed to a different venue and had to be redesigned. The whole schedule was pushed back with still a considerable scope of works. The entire team pulled together to make this show work.

My team and myself painted the whole set, including creating paint samples, in 1.5 weeks of only half days (still had classes for half the day). For part of that time I was working by myself as the set was still being built but I also led a team of up to 10 people by the end of the process. Most of the people in the team were new to scenic art so I also took on the role of teacher.

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I had a lot of fun creating the painting technique for the floor. I used texture sponges, that I had made specifically for the purpose, to create a base texture in raw umber wash. The sponging created the ripples in the sand which we continued into the water to give it the transparency. We then used washes of turquoise and blues splattered and dispersed over the top. For the sand we lightly speckled yellow ochre and a white wash on top of the raw umber. 

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Matt Raven, the set designer, and myself also came up with an interesting way of texturing the platform facia. By using lime powder mixed into the paint to make a thick textured paint that we then wood grained as usual with a wood graining tool creating raised edges to the wood that the lights could then cast shadows on. It was a more subtle affect then the floor but was still affective.

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Of course the production got cancelled before running due to COVID-19.

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