The Grotto Scene

For my school’s production of Peter and the Starcatcher, I was tasked with designing and creating the grotto scene. In the scene, Peter falls into the magical grotto and meets a mermaid who gives him his last name. My teacher, Gina Winter, thought it would be perfect for me since she knew I loved both set building and sewing. In the end I decided to have the actor playing the mermaid (Michael Clark) climb a ladder and hold the tail, which was sewn onto a large blue sheet of fabric in front of him, so it appeared that he was wearing a tail and the ladder was hidden. This allowed him to be above Peter (Brayden Roberge) as if he was looking down from a rock, and was easy to hold. It also let actors hide underneath and hold flashlights up to simulate ‘starstuff’ in the water. I decided to incorporate the t

ail and the water into one for a two reasons. The first was so Michael Clark could easily get into the ‘costume’ and safely climb the ladder, and so the scene change would be quick and effective. All the actors had to was unfold the material and slide under. Then it was also easy for the crew to refold it in the correct way and be ready to go for the next show.

SR Deck

During the production, which ran from October 25-27 2018, I managed the stage right deck. I was in charge of props, costumes, and anything else kept on this side of the stage. I handed out props to actors when they needed them and helped with costume changes. During the pre-show and intermission I also set up parts of the stage and made sure set pieces were in the correct position. My final responsibility was to keep the other crew members on my side on task and make sure everyone was doing their jobs.