Scrolling

Drew Hoopingarner and his team from Southport Presbyterian Church bring us this unique stage design for the season of Lent.

The set consisted of two large scrolls and a wax seal to tie in the imagery of the Lenten sermon series on the book of Judges. The right scroll had the verse Judges 2:16, ‘’Then the Lord raised up the judges who saved them…’’painted on it. The left scroll had the same verse in Hebrew.

The scrolls were made out of 16’-2×4’s, 2×2’s, luan, concrete forms, and wood circles. They first took 1-16’ 2×4 and an 8’-2×4 and spliced them together to create 24’-2×4. They created a rectangle that was 24’x2’, then they added 2×2’s and cut them down to 4’ each on the rectangle. They laid out the 2×2’s in the shape of an unfurling scroll. Then, they screwed the 2×2’s to the rectangle frame. After that, they took luan sheets and cut them to 4’’ strips. Lastly, they screwed them to the top of the 2×2’s to create smooth sides of the scrolls.

After the scroll frames were built they took cheap drop cloths from the hardware store and stretched them on the frames. The team ordered 18 yards of muslin from www.rosebrand.com. They stretched the muslin over the frame as well and made sure that all of the creases were out. The muslin was pulled tight around the frame and stapled. They left about 4’ of extra fabric on each end of the scroll to wrap around the tubes at the end.

Once the fabric was stretched, the team used an overhead projector to project the wording on the scroll and traced it with a pencil. All the words were cut apart to enable the team to position them to follow the curve of the scroll. Once the letters were traced, they were gone over with dark brown paint.

A concrete form was attached to each end of the scroll to create the look of the wooden rolls that would be at each end of a traditional scroll. Each tube had a wooden circle attached to it that was stained to create an aged look. The handles were cut from foam, painted, and attached with hot glue.

The seal was made out of a 4’ circle of foam. Using foam pipe insulation, a rim was created to give the seal a stamped look. One of the team members made a crown out of plaster placed it in the middle of the circle. Finally, tissue paper and paper mache were applied to the whole seal to smooth it out. Once everything dried, the seal was painted and shaded. To give the seal the shiny appearance, it was sprayed with a glossy enamel coating.

This set took the team of four about 3 days of work.

As the different services arrived throughout Lent, the scrolls were lit in different colors. One Good Friday, the scrolls were draped with black cloth to signify the darkness in the world.