Broadneck Elementary School was performing Seussical Kids and I was asked to provide some set pieces for the show. In the show, the character JoJo takes a bath and imagines life in McElligot’s Pool, so the show needed a bathtub and over 100 fish! The fish would be made of blank yard sale sign material (like cardboard, but plastic) and, fortunately, the parents and teachers were willing to cut them out. So first, my daughter selected five different styles of fish from the Seuss books, scanned them onto a paper grid, and then transferred them to full size wooden templates (about 12-24″ each). I cut out one example of each fish on the yard sign material which was harder than it looked (the volunteers were not amused). The students painted the fish and with the added UV edging and blacklights during the show, they looked amazing.
The bathtub was straightforward except we planned on using the same piece, turned around, for a field of flowers in another scene. My daughter came up with the basic tub design (which I loved) and we adapted it to look like a hill from the back. I transferred it to a sheet of 1″ rigid foam and cut it out. I then cut another piece of 1″ foam to look like another hill, so Horton the Elephant could walk “among” the flowers. Both of these pieces of foam were self-standing and slotted into a base that tied the whole unit together. My favorite addition to the tub was the Cat In The Hat’s umbrella and cake which wasn’t part of the show, but simply a nod to the Cat In The Hat book.
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