Make Your Own Theatre
What you need:
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Stiff card
A large grocery box
Brown paper or paint
Glue
Braid (odd lengths and colours will do)
Cardboard tube (Kitchen foil tube)
Corrugated cardboard
Thin garden cane
A gold cake doily
Gold paint
Emulsion for the outside of the theatre
Materials and fringing for the curtain
To build the theatre:
1.)
The stage itself is made from the end of the grocery box, which
should be about 30cm wide and 34cm deep. Cut out 7cm in from
the end of the box and reseal any open flaps, so that the sides
are solid.
2.)
To hide any lettering, cover the stage with brown paper or paint it.
3.)
For the front of the theatre you need a large piece of stiff card.
Cut out a 25cm square opening for the stage, with the bottom of
the square coming about 7cm in from one side, so that when it is
glued in place, the opening will be at the same level as the stage.
To decorate the stage:
1.)
Find or cut to size a cardboard tube the right length to reach
from the bottom of the theatre to just above the stage opening.
Cut it in half lengthways. Decorate the top and bottom with
strips of corrugated paper and stick the pillars on each side of
the theatre.
2.)
Glue braid along the pillar ends, around the stage and in the arch.
3.)
Paint the front, braid, pillars and all any colour you like. Use
emulsion paint rather than gloss. When the second coat is dry,
highlight the braid in gold.
4.)
Cut an interestingly shaped section from a gold paper doily to
decorate the centre of the arch.
5.)
Stick the front of the theatre onto the stage
6.)
For the back of the stage, cut a rectangle of cardboard the same
width as the stage and high enough to come just above the stage
opening. Paint to make the front of the theatre.
7.)
To give the stage extra strength add glue two strips of cardboard
to the top of the stage, linking the front and back of the theatre
(See below)
Cut 1cm grooves in the strips, to hold the curtain and the backcloth.
To make the curtain:
1.)
Make the pelmet from a piece of card (just wider than the stage
opening) covered in red velvet and finished off with fringing.
Attached this to the top of the stage opening.
2.)
The curtain is stuck onto a piece of card, which is just a bit bigger
than the square that you cut out to make the stage opening. Cover
the card in velvet and finish with fringing.
3.)
Add a piece of garden cane to the top of the curtain and put it in
position in the groove at the front of the stage.
4.)
You can make a backcloth in exactly the same way as the curtain
and decorate it to look like the shoe maker's workshop or any other
location you want for other stories. The backcloth slots into the
groove at the back of the stage.