The Montgomery Blair Players Stage Crew Pages - There are Giants in the Sky

Into the Woods

For our version of Into the Woods we changed the Giant into a Giant's hand, we didn't like the look from the video, and thought just showing the hand (13 feet long) would be more effective. Here are some shots of us building the hand. We began with a 16' long 2 x 6" and sliced some off to reduce the weight. Michael built a strong base with a pin 3 feet off the ground. After gluing on some support for the counterweights we attached the wooden "armbone" (is it an ulna or a radius??) and added some finger bones out of scrap wood. We added the chicken wire and decided to bend the fingers, which took a little persuasion with a saw.

This armbone's connected to a gaspipe!
Later we had to drape the chicken wire with something, we chose packing foam.

Everything seemed fine until we learned that the tape didn't stick to this foam. Glue wouldn't stick to this foam. NOTHING sticks to this foam! Not even (latex) paint. So we ended up draping it with canvas, which we were saving to build flats.

Below is a shot of the hand with fabric sewn over the useless foam.

Stage Crew members sewed the canvas into place.

Here is the finished hand in action.

The foam may prove useful making masks, etc., since it will release the fabric after the glue has dried. Nothing like a little experience to lead the way. The hand is fashioned to fall (gently!) down when the safety catch is released. As it falls it picks up counterweights at the low (offstage) end. You'll need more counterweight than you think.

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