Abigail Manard

Assistance Experience

While I was doing my undergrad at Baldwin Wallace University, I had the opportunity to be the assistant set designer to Jeff Herrmann for Into the Woods (Baldwin Wallace Main Stage) and Lizzie: The Musical (Beck Centre for the Arts). As his assistant, I helped design and make multiple props, constructed parts of the set that needed to be designed as it was going up, and helped to keep the overall creative vision on track. Specifically, for Into the Woods I helped to design and build tree branches that hung on the fly bars made out of hessian, green plastic netting, different colour and thicknesses of ropes, as well as wooden pieces of furniture and lights. I worked as the head of a team, instructing and working with them to drape these materials to create the desired effect while frequently checking in with Jeff to make sure it was in line with his creative vision. Another major piece that I worked on with this production was the giantess’s hand which falls onto the stage when she dies near the end of Act 2. Jeff designed a thick metal frame for the hand that was welded by our construction team. It was then passed on to me and my team where we covered it with chicken wire, then added a layer of muslin soaked in a water and glue mixture, and finally I worked with Jeff to paint it to look like a realistic hand with painted nails and I made a sleeve and some buttons for its wrist. With Lizzie: The Musical, I was in charge of making and sourcing props for the show. Some of the notable props I made were dead pigeons with their heads chopped off, an old ‘Book of Household Poisons’, a decorative throne-like chair that I painted black and splattered with blood, as well as watermelon “heads” that were carved out and filled with spaghetti and stage blood so one of the actors could take an axe to them. As Jeff was also the lighting designer for this show, I gained a decent understanding of lighting design as well as helped to focus lights in prep for tech week. These were both great opportunities that helped me fall in love with design.

More recently, I worked alongside Rhiannon Binnington as her puppet maker and assistant set and costume designer for Red Rope Theatre Company’s production of The Hounds of Baskerville. Together, we worked on sourcing the costumes for the actors at Bristol Costume Services, building set pieces such as the window sill stone wall, and dressing the Arnos Vale Chapel to help the audience feel like they are stepping right into a Sherlock Holme’s novel. My main focus with this project was to design and build the Hound puppet which was a major element for the show. I built the skeletal hound puppet out of carved polystyrene, cardboard tubes, newspaper, and other junk bits that I had access to. In the end, the puppet was able to soar over actors and had movement in its arms to “leap” and “pounce” on the actors. The other puppets I worked on were the “mini me’s” which were designed to help create a running sequence in a small space. One of the puppets was a running women who’s arms and head could move, the other one was a man on a horse and the horses neck and the mans head could move to create the necessary effect of a chase sequence. Both of these puppets were also made out of polystyrene and crafty/junk bits I had.

Thanks to my education, I feel very confident in both AutoCAD and Vectorworks as well as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Procreate, Canva, and Freeform but I am also very willing to learn new programs. I have learned and feel confident in making both 1:25 and 1:50 models and love creating textures, structural pieces, and plant-life. I really love working on the very small details that can bring designs together. I also have had the opportunity to learn and practice scenic art and prop making where I have a learned a range of skills such as upholstering furniture, construction, ceramic sculpting, making of fake realistic food, etc. I am always willing to learn and apply myself to any project I am given.

I am someone who is always willing to learn and always up for new and fun challenges!

Training

Date of graduation

Region