It took about four seconds to piece together in my head the request I got. The first two seconds was spent on my thoughts going “You want me to make a whatnow?” and the other two seconds was to go “Oh snap!”
That was my re-action to when actor/director/writer Jeremy Brothers asked me to make a prop/costume for his and Musician Jim Zaroulis’s new musical, “You’re a good man, Scott Brown.” The prop that he wanted was a wearable-movable-danceable truck costume.
So here’s a confession. I wasn’t following the Senatorial race. I didn’t even know it was over until the massive amount of depressing status updates flooded my facebook news feed. In this, apparently black woe-filled day in my social network, little shiny jubilant statuses stood out like bright stars on a dark night and they all seem to be Republican. Scott Brown had just won Ted Kennedy’s seat in the Senate. It was like when Obama won the Presidency except the reactions were reversed. Also! This made me realize how little Republican friends I have.
Anyways, Jeremy had to give me a synopsis of what happened in the months I didn’t really pay attention to. About Scott Brown and his Truck. About how he’s from Wrentham and he drives a Truck. How his campaign commercials involved him and his Truck. He loves that Truck. His Ford F-150 Truck…….Truck Truck…..Truck….Truck.
So now I was to make a truck costume to fit an Actor named Quinn Beswick . When we started brainstorming on what the truck should look like, I had mentioned using one of the prop wheelchairs the theater had and constructing it to look like a truck. Jeremy had another idea. Instead, he wanted Quinn to skate around the stage on rollerskates. He also wanted it to be in the style of Julie Taymor. You know, the chick who designed The Lion King on Broadway. Now, I knew the only way this was going to work was if I go towards the Transformer route, which I was told to avoid doing. So I came up with this design:
The scanner cut off the image...didn't matter. It was rejected anyways.
This would involve a shit ton of fabric and sewing. But it would look like a truck. In fact it looked so much like a truck that Jeremy said, “It’s too literal.” followed by, “go abstract.” To which I asked, “You mean like Starlight Express?” and he smiled and said, “Yes”
Starlight Express….one of the many brilliantly gay things Andrew Lloyd Webber and company had ever come up with. The costumes were pretty damn cool…But I didn’t know how well that would translate to the audience. I was afraid they’d wonder why there was a robot in this whole revision of Scott Brown’s senate tale. Still, I went the Starlight route but made sure the audience knew that this man…was a truck.
Optimus G.O.P! Haha...wait.... what was that about not going the Transformer route?
This too was rejected. “Too Futuristic” I was told. Maybe it was because Jeremy was pressed for time, or maybe it was because I explained that “No, those are wheels…not jet packs,” that eventually this design was approved.
I originally intended to make this thing out of cardboard, but since this was going to be carried around everywhere, I decided to make it out of plastic.
Soon, I’ve become familiar to the aisles of the Home Depot in South Bay Center much to the delight of their employees who would look disappointed if I had said “Yes…I do need some help” after they asked if I needed one. I constructed the frame of the truck with wood. Cut up and screwed on a combination of plastic buckets, large bins and Tupperware. Bought a $20 pair of Rollerblades from a small Asian woman from craigslist. And then repeated a trip after trip to Home Depot for more knick knacks and Spray paints.
I had my suspicions about regular spray paint not bonding well with the plastic. This was confirmed when I spray painted the constructed truck and the son of a bitch began to peel after it was dry. probably didn’t help that the spray paint I used were only 97 cents each. So I got the expensive made for plastic kind and after a few revisions to the design as well as omitting those shoulder thingies. everything worked well.
GMC....American Made!....well... Filipino-American Made...American nonetheless!
Ok, the picture above doesn’t give the costume any justice. Luckily, WCVBtv Channel 5 did a piece on the musical and caught the cast at rehearsal. They also got a good look at the truck (with no GMC sign) in action. Click the link below to see!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q350OIZZ6O0
But there was a problem. That small Asian woman from craigslist had hustled me! The goddamn $20 skates were falling apart! The wheels were deteriorating and started digging up the wooden stage which was just renovated. So the skates had to go. Which actually allowed Quinn more movement. As seen in this Channel 7 coverage of the opening night of the show. Click the link below to see!
http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/entertainment/BO138278/
I don’t know why but when Quinn first wore the truck, he looked awkward and didn’t seem to enjoy having to carry all that weight while performing on stage. But Quinn made it work and made it his own. Frankly, the truck wouldn’t look as good had Quinn not been playing that part.
Jeremy had also wanted me to make a banner for one of the songs. It was to be a painting of Scott Brown, during his Cosmopolitan male modeling days, except the face would be Evan Kaufman’s face, the actor playing Scott Brown. Using the same technique I used for the NXT Lost in Boston’s Mayor Menino banner where it was unraveled in scroll form, I painted ScottBrown/Evan Kaufman in acrylic and it took about 5-6 hours to finish (including drying time). The finish piece looks like….well, I don’t know if I’m allowed to show it on here since anything I’ve mentioned or shown so far about the musical are things the news had already spoiled…. well ok… I’ll take a picture of Evan showing it…..just promise not tell anyone:
OOPS! Sorry, Vic's an asshole.
I had a change of heart so you’ll just have to go to the show to see it!
There is a very quick shot of the painting in the video below of the official trailer for the show, blink and you’ll miss it:
This show was way bigger than I originally thought it would be. Way funnier than when I first read the script for it. Then somebody mentioned that the real Scott Brown and his family were actually going to see it, and that’s when the gravity of just how awesome it was to be involved in this hit me.
-Vic