At The Old Place, playing at The Arden Theatre Company from July 18th  until July 28th as part of their new Writer’s Room Series, has set pieces made from materials from the resource Exchange.

Here is Chris Haig’s original design for what he calls “remnant trees.”  The goal was to make these trees out of reclaimed and repurposed materials.  Haig says, “The ‘leaves’ are made out of various pieces of burnt velvet procured at the Resource Exchange. The ‘trunk’ is made out of various found scraps of lumber. It all hangs from the grid off the stage floor giving it a mobile-like quality.”

Arden Professional Apprentice Laura Barati and Haig cut the velvet into squares for the leaves.

After cutting them into rectangles they attached each leaf to wires.  Haig explains, “the vertical wires will not allow much movement side to side, but the fabric itself will hang loose and free to move in the breeze which will be created by the actor’s movements and the AC in the theatre. By lighting them from the front, we’ll get a ton of different looks given the amount of variation in the colors of the velvet. When we light them from behind, the burnt away patterns will create beautiful lace-like silhouettes which will cast gorgeous shadows on the stage floor.”  

 At the Old Place provides a great example of how artists can choose to design around reused materials, instead of planning on buying new.  If you’re interested in hearing more about these possibilities for theatre come chat with Chris Haig, the re staff, and other theatre artists at our Happy Hour, Friday July 26th from 5pm-8pm.  Until then you can catch At the Old Place at The Arden!