The Tempest by Brandon Barker

MSUDOT’s next production is Shakespeare’s The Tempest. For the past month and more I have been helping build the set. It has been quite a learning experience. The design concept for this show is that it takes place on a frozen ice berg (the play The Tempest takes place on some sort of abandoned island). To get the look of ice, all of the platforms are covered in eight inch Styrofoam that was then carved to look like ice. After the foam was carved we did an overlaying texture to make it look like water flow. We called this texture schmoo. What was involved in the process of schmooing was soaking pieces of muslin into a mixture of white paint, Elmer’s Glue, and a substance called Elastomeric. The mixture is what we called schmoo. This texture process was very monotonous because there were so many pieces of muslin and so much to cover. Schmoo is also very messy. Due to the triple bond of paint, glue, and Elastomeric; schmoo didn’t like to come off your skin. It would be days after I would schmoo and I’d still find it on me. Overall though, the texture turned out really cool. The set looks amazing. The Tempestruns November 10^th to the 20^th.