I was always dreadful at acting. The whole concept of walking out on stage and pretending to be someone else filled me with self-conscious terror.
I think that the reason I ended up playing the drums in various bands (Mary Jane is still going..!) was that I could hide at the back behind a big bass drum and a few toms & octobans.
What I did really enjoy was working backstage. Lights and technical work was fun, but from a creative point of view it was set design and painting that I loved. A school trip to the National Theatre in my youth stayed with me – the mockups of the stage sets (many of which can be seen in the V&A Museum today) were breathtaking in their detail and creativity – but look behind them and you’ll see that often they were no more than chopped up cereal boxes. The illusion was everything.
After many years, I recently got the chance to have another chance. My son’s school production of What a Knight! gave me the opportunity to design and create a new set, complete with castle turrets and giant chess pieces. Andrew Lloyd Webber (and Monty Python) would have been proud.
Using sheets of polystyrene, I marked out the brickwork, ground out the grooves with an electric drill & grinder bit, distressed the stonework with wire wool and finished with a couple of coats of paint. Pretty straightforward and something very different & rewarding to work on. The video and photos below show the progress of the project.
Cardboard Model of the Castle
Castle Turret Design
Full size turret in build
Draw then grind then wire wool to distress the stonework
The finished castle turret
