A central setting to Lion King Kids, Pride Rock had to meet a lot of criteria. It had to look right. It had to be safe to stand on. It had to be big enough to make an impression, but not so big that it was hard to move or took up too much space. The wooden frame was built to keep things stable and the rigid foam “rock” layers added dimension and the right look. Keeping the vertical background “rock” in some proportion to the walkable platform meant the background had to be pretty tall. But this part was surprisingly light since it was simply layers of two inch rigid foam sandwiched together. By making the back side of Pride Rock into Scar’s Cave, this very large set piece did double duty which helped minimize the off-stage storage problems.
Pride Rock’s wooden frame. The weight-bearing supports were all vertical, while the angled legs were primarily decorative (although they did keep the front from tipping left or right).
Starting to get layers of rigid foam to get the rock look and hide the frame.
More foam to hide the angled legs. The cuts and divots in the foam were hit with a heat gun to make it look more organic.
The back and underside of the rock stairs that give access to the angled platform above.
Opposite view of the rock stairs showing the plywood steps with the foam to look like layers of rock.
The stairs and angled platform as they would nestle together on-stage.
The vertical portion of Pride Rock, showing the layers of two inch rigid foam. It’s mostly hollow with edge pieces are only a few inches wide.
The flat side of the vertical portion. This side stood behind Pride Rock. In this picture, the seams from the 4’x8′ foam sheet are clearly visible, but weren’t as noticeable in the show with the other part and the actors in front of it. Regardless, I should have cut the pieces irregularly to hide the seams better.
The Scar’s Cave side. This side was intentionally painted a greyer shade to reflect Scar’s outsider status in the show.
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