Great Comet of 1812

Important clarification: The audience was sat on stage and the House was empty. For the Comet, my main goal was to achieve Dave Malloy’s “Cosmic Epicness” that he wanted in the original show. Initially this was envisioned as a glowing orb of light that would fly in from the house, up onto the stage and fly out towards the grid, never passing into an actors hand to have this separation between Man and the Cosmos. For a multitude of reasons, including but not limited to budget and the laws of physics, this idea was scrapped.

This plan took the form of a welded amalgamation that would serve as the core (Image 1), with the G4 LED bulbs giving light that would be diffused with thin plastic (Image 2).
The outer shell would be molded plastic (Image 3).
After testing it was realized that this logistically would not work OR achieve the desired affect. It was the Assistant Props Designer, Clayton Garrison, whose idea it was to look into other options, which resulted in us using a lamp that was nicknamed Sputnik due to its (minor) resemblance to the Russian satellite.

Image 3

Sputnik

Sputnik is the second and final iteration of the Comet. It is a modified Christmas Starburst Lamp, the branches were removed (Image 1) leaving a brass ball with prongs extending out, where the LED’s sat.

The lamp originally ran on AC power, which was required due to it using larger LED bulbs from stock. The LED’s were replaced with smaller bulbs and was wired to a rechargeable 12V battery pack. The whole thing is connected to a Radio Remote Control, so that it could be operated by the Stage Managers (Image 2).

The LED’s were dimmed with ping pong balls stuffed with muslin (Image 3) ,so that the entire space was not illuminated.

First Test of Sputnik

Final Design

The final design of the Comet had Sputnik fly in from the house in an arc, where it would reach the apron and be removed from its anchor by Pierre and carried onstage. Instead of separating Man and the Cosmos, it symbolized the revelation Pierre has at the end of the show and the connection he and Natasha shared in the previous number. Both Pierre and Natasha would then secure it to a fly line and it would be flown out in the center of the stage, where it would rise and illuminate the Grid.

Electric Candlestick

One of the Candles used in the show was made from a slim, remote controlled electric candle. The candle holder was pulled from stock, and the shape of the candle was made with a thin nozzle hot glue gun to emulate dripping wax. The candle can be separated from the candle holder to replace the batteries.

The remote from the candle did require line of sight in order to turn it on and off.

Letters

The letters were initially written by Mackenzie Crossland, in cursive English. To make a large amount of letters in order to save time, one of each variety of letter was digitally copied and printed out on the same parchment paper. The seals were bought off Amazon and were peel and stick on. The seals were reusable.

The Packs of Letters were made with blank folded papers stacked and glued together and wrapped in string.

A majority of the rest of the props were pulled from stock or purchased. Of these props were the Bottles and Glasses that were used throughout the show. Each bottle had a generic Russian Vodka Label printed and adhered to it. The only other unique prop used was a breakaway shot glass purchased from NewRuleFX.