"Hey you kids! Stay off my lawn!"

...



The stage floor of the show we are currently working on has to look like a sad, suburban lawn. So Sheri and I are in the process of teaching ourselves to make said sickly lawn.

We ordered six hundred square feet of raffia matting (known in the trade as "funeral grass") and an assortment of textile inks, and have been working on color samples. Our pathetic grass has to look as realistic as possible.




Since no dying lawn is complete without bald spots, we are also experimenting with ways to create fake dirt. Of course, our dirt has to be the kind that doesn't soil the actors' costumes, and it can't be the home to bugs. As you see from the above photos, we are very methodical in our research.

Strangely, this isn't the sort of thing that I learned in Art School.

Comments

Anonymous said…
This is the kinda thing my oldest dd would love to do. Whatcha need is a couple of Great Danes to come and run around on it for a few days...that will do the trick. Worked for me!
gf
Shannon Howard said…
I love how the floor itself echoes the themes of the show--such a cool script and a great design.

Shannon H.
education intern
Anonymous said…
Why can't you just move a lot of crap around on the stage and pretend it's your neighbors back yard?

What's up with those mysterious folks, anyway?

When doing your fake lawn, don't forget the old dog crap that turns white around the edges and the occasional tall brown mystery weeds, as well as long grass strands and some crushed soda cans and cigg butts. You can tell I lived around white trash, eh? Throw some soiled pampers in there on a hot day and breathe deeply! Also, broken plastic kids toys.

Annalisa
Anonymous said…
Feel free to come to my house and feast your eyes upon my sad, sickly lawn. It is currently festooned with rabbit poop. And dog poop. Also attending the sickly lawn party are: a large pvc pipe previously intended for drainage but for some reason only my husband knows, is now disconnected and lying on the lawn, a pen for our turtles to stay in when their pond's being cleaned, a bucket, a bbq grill cover and a few white-crowned sparrows eating lord knows what.

Popular Posts