Avi Miller

Silent Sky by Lauren Gunderson at Colorado State University, Fall 2023

Director: Debbie Swann | Set Designer: Roger Hanna | Lighting Designer: Katie Simonson | Sound Designer: Vijay Sailakham | Costume Designer: Maddie Engeman | Stage Manager: Annie Hennen | Prop Master: Rachel Ross

Paper Props

I researched various paper props to try to make them historically accurate. We filled the inside of the logbooks by hand to make them look full when flipped through. For letters, I used different fonts for different characters to make them look like different handwriting.

Star Plates

The star plates were made out of cut Plexiglass then they were taped around the edges with Washi tape. We sprayed the taped side of the plate with frosted glass spray, then used black spray paint to make stars. We lightly pressed the nozzle to make it come out in bigger drops. Some dots were hand-painted on. Finally, we removed the tape. Prop Master Rachel Ross made a breakable star plate by scoring one of the plates and breaking it, then Stage Management used clear glue to reattach it every night.

Crates

Working with the scene shop, we built 21 crates that made up most of the set in our production. We sanded and routed the crates, then coated them with a layer of Shellac for the color. We added feet and caps to nest the crates on top of each other. I researched the handle and label holders, then I attached them to the boxes. We labeled each crate with a number. We glued most of them shut, and the rest had slots inside that were filled with star plates.