local
set to melt your heart E
This ethereal paper sculpture, no higher than 12 inches, will be scaled up an
amazing 25 times to become the set of The Snow Queen
very Christmas show must have a stage to stop the audience in its tracks, to inspire the collective
gasp, to fly viewers’ imaginations into other worlds. Therefore, in October, we visited the Rose hoping for a sneak preview of their set for The Snow Queen - the dramatisation of Hans Christian Andersen’s tale is the Rose’s Christmas centrepiece. But the set is top secret and we cannot bribe them. We are only allowed a tiny glimpse – we must not spoil the surprise so Shhhhhhh... – but we can reveal that ‘tiny’ is indeed the word.
Even although rehearsals are a long way off, in her studio in nearby East Sheen, artist Su Blackwell has already created the model for the set of The Snow Queen,
We find out just what’s going on behind the scenes of The Snow Queen!
and this I am allowed to see. But, wait a minute, the model I am viewing is a fragile three dimensional paper sculpture finely cut from the pages of The Snow Queen storybook itself. In this carefully wrought, handmade piece, the frail cut out characters appear poised for release from their own story, as if they might next float high away above the pages from which they are created. Yet this ethereal paper sculpture is all set, if you will pardon the pun, to be scaled up an amazing 25 times to become the set of the show that you will see at Christmas. It’s this remarkable, faithful magnification of her miniaturist work, its transformation into such a robust structure - a full scale working stage - I am finding difficult to imagine. I asked Su to enlarge.
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