Guilty Pleasures: I’m on a Boat
Last weekend, we had an amazing run of The Little Mermaid in Ann Arbor. All four shows went off without a hitch and cast, crew, and audience had a marvelous time.
I bet you’re all wondering what my role in all of this was, aren’t you? Obviously, I provided the genetics for my daughter’s stupendous singing talent and beautiful skin tone. Plus, I did most of the schlepping to and from rehearsals. But I did much, much more.
Since this is community theater, parents volunteer their time and construct the sets, make the costumes, gather the props, and run the backstage crew. For most of these shows, I worked on the set construction and backstage crew. I say that in the past tense, because someone recently told me I only had to do one of them. So I may drop one of those activities – depending on who has the better beer.
Here are some of the set pieces we built and, at different times, had to move on and off the stage.
Rocks where Scuttle and other seagulls were singing.
The rowboat for “Kiss the Girl.” The boat itself was about 4 feet off the ground as the kids playing fishes and such were below it and “under water.” Cool, eh?
Ariel’s Grotto
Prince Eric’s Ship
Disney Saturday Night Live
That last one almost killed me. It’s hard to tell from the picture, but it’s about 20 feet wide, 12 feet high and 6 feet deep. We had to roll it quickly – with 10 kids on it – on and off a few times. Before they put on better wheels, I actually lost a testicle during one of those moves.
Of course, being around those boats and all the aquatic-themed things made think of one song. And The Piehole and I may or may not have listened to it every day on the way to rehearsals that final week.
Lonely Planet’s “I’m on a Boat”
humor
music
I love that song. I may actually like it better than “Dick in a Box.”
music
video
Princess
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10 comments on “Guilty Pleasures: I’m on a Boat”
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Nice post!
Thanks!!
You’re a great dad for doing all of that!
For introducing my young kids to songs that are f-bomb laden? 😉
Btw- congrats on the Fresh Press. Told U that was a brilliant post!!
I was pretty excited when I saw this was your pick for today, but even more excited seeing the set pieces! They’re all incredible. What did you use for Ariel’s grotto? It looks kind of like Saran Wrap (which, actually, makes a lot of sense).
It was originally planned for just Saran Wrap with backlighting, but the supports were visible. They used styrofoam then wrapped. Was gorgeous.
Sorry about the testicle, but the sets look great.
Haha. We found it. It was a little dusty…
Impressive work!
We’re big fans of swim trunks and flippy floppies around here, too! This is our favorite version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fKOmQgJaVo Extra funny because my husband is a USNA grad. “Boat” takes on a whole new meaning. Nice set work, btw! Salud!!