Broadneck Elementary School was performing Seussical Kids and I was asked to provide some set pieces for the show. The biggest piece was the nest where Horton the Elephant agrees to watch over an egg and he sticks with it until it hatches. The platform was 4 feet high (with another foot of nest) and about 30 inches square. High enough to be a respectable nest (hey, the actors were short) and large enough to hold the actors and the egg effect. I found a wonderful example of someone else’s effort and used that as inspiration. The A-frame had a ladder built into one side and was camouflaged with plywood flats and the furry nest material. The nest was surprisingly light for how large it was. The egg was several layers of 2″ rigid foam glued together, shaved into an egg shape, painted, and mounted on a wooden arm. The “elephant-bird” was a stuffed toy elephant with a stuffed toy parrot’s wings attached to another wooden arm. To perform the transformation, there were two ropes that ran under the nest to a crew member hidden behind it. One caused the egg to fall backwards and the other raised the elephant-bird straight up. I was most nervous about the effect getting stuck and during the performance, there was a long pause with no egg movement and everyone staring at it. I was literally on the edge of my seat. But then it fell back and that cute little elephant-bird popped his head over the edge of the nest. I’m told the teachers at the school were fighting over who got to move the nest into their classroom as a reading nook. That was probably even more rewarding to me than seeing it in the performance.
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