Spring Awakening

Spring Awakening by Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik at Colorado State University, Fall 2023

Construction

I used a jigsaw to cut out pieces for the piano bench before sanding it and assembling it with wood glue and a nail gun. I also assisted Rachel Ross in constructing the piano and adding casters. I made yardsticks for the piano teacher using the miter saw. For the students’ chairs, I cut and attached pieces of wood to the bottom for under-chair storage and painted them black. For the switches, Jay Duckworth, Rachel Ross, and I carved out the center of foam rods using a Dremel tool before adhering bamboo sticks to the inside. We did this because it made a loud noise when used, but was soft enough to not hurt anyone. We wrapped the switches with tape to allow them to dry without gaps showing the bamboo. We made twelve of these in case any of them broke.

Books

Most of the set was composed of books, and this included fifty fake books of increasing sizes to hang from the chandelier. To make these, we cut pages out of foam core and scored the foam to make the books look open. We attached black book covers onto the back, then we glued paper on top to make them look more like books.