Hard Technical Work

As you may have seen posted elsewhere, a part of the plan is to build a Parade Float. 

Well, you may know that I built a stage at Tamenend Park with the help of a long time friend, Gian.

As the construction progressed, we started up a group called "The Shakespeareans of Tamenend Park.

We did walk in The Southampton Days parade a number of times and it was very much fun for both us and the parade viewers. One year we won First Place in the parade for our presentation of "The Earl of Southampton present Queen Elizabeth".

 I just erased the photo of The Earl of Southampton standing next to the carriage, bummer. Here's another shot from a different event. We had performances set up at the stage after the parade.

Well, the point of showing these shots is this; 

The Stage at Tamenend Park was disassembled and the programs there, which included "Cinema Under the Stars" were discontinued after about six years,  due in large part, because of vandalism, but also because of a changing of management in the park.  However, the stage you see there, will be reproduced, using the Parade Float as a foundation. Doing this extends the usefulness of a parade float, but it also effects the design of the stage overall.

This leads me to discuss the nature of both the Parade Float / Stage 

as it pertains to 

The Gnomes of New Hope.

 As you can see from these photos, Southampton has the perfect set-up to develop the presentation of the Gnomes, a parade, followed by a festival.

 In my mind, the Parade Float will have it's testing grounds in The Southampton Days Parade, at the end of which, is a carnival/festival environment, whereby we can use the Parade Float as the stage for a festival presentation. That can either be a live performance or a puppetry performance, or a combination of both.

 So, this becomes an epiphany for me. It's perfect! One aspect of this that has tormented me has been the relationship between the actors and the sets, but I'll get into that later. The beauty of using the Parade Float as the stage, is that; the presentation in a park automatically provides the forest backdrop for the show. After all, the Gnomes live in the forest. (the only serious variable here is the weather).

As ugly as it looks now, this Corvair Greenbrier will become a self propelled Parade Float after the body is cut off the chassis and it is turned into a stage. 

It may become a templet for more than one parade float, but I will go into this further as work on this project progresses. I have begun setting up to implement the work of building the parade float, so keep watch for updates, which I expect will include design drawing and photographs of the progress.

UPDATE;

Here is a drawing of the Corvair FC (Forward Control) Chassis without the body. This is the fate of the sad looking Greenbrier above. It is to be the donor for our Parade Float.

 If all goes well, I will implement cutting the truck down before winter hits, here in Pennsylvania. 

My expectation is to emulate the stage that was in the park, albeit a bit higher off the ground, 

using the Parade Float for the main section.  The center section will be used as  storage for power and sound systems.  I expect it to become a Rental Stage.

AG