Set Design and Construction: Building tall columns

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Building tall columns

Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Set Design and Construction
Forum Discription: Post your questions or suggestions about designing or building a set here.
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4106
Printed Date: 10/31/25 at 4:57am
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Topic: Building tall columns

Posted By: WrenCharlie
Subject: Building tall columns
Date Posted: 6/29/09 at 1:38pm

I'm directing "The Lion in Winter" and need to build several tall columns that will be approximately 7 feet tall. Any suggestions?

Replies:

Posted By: belle
Date Posted: 6/29/09 at 2:12pm

We borrowed some made from furnace vent pipe. There were easily that tall. The vent pipe was 8-10 inches in diameter and made of metal. I think you can buy it by the foot at Lowe's or a lumber yard. The columns would probably be an investment but should store fairly easily. They had wooden tops and bottoms (capitals?) and were painted white. I think there was a plywood circle in the middle in a place or two to keep them stable.

There is also a carpet roll, but I think they might be too small in diameter. Places that sell carpet usually have them to give away.

It's possible to roll cardboard around plywood circles. I think you have to make vertical cuts in the cardboard so that it will roll properly. A book on building from cardboard would explain how. I made some of these long ago for My Fair Lady.

Another possibility is cardboard barrels. They are very large--maybe 24"-30" in diameter. They are about 4 feet tall so they could be stacked and fastened together. They have a metal rim on the top and bottom and are very sturdy. It depends on the size column you want. Some industries get cleaning supplies or other materials in them. You need to ask around. I've seen them at garage sales. Craig's list might be a source, too.

Hope this helps. Maybe a "real" set building will have some better ideas.

Posted By: sartori92
Date Posted: 6/29/09 at 5:45pm

i know that on shindigz.com(spelling?) they sell column. different colors and sizes and i believe they are made of carboard. i know that they should be pretty cheap as well. they always have sales and discounts on that website.

-------------
"All the world is a stage"

Posted By: TonyDi
Date Posted: 6/30/09 at 6:56am

We built some once from 12" cardboard concrete forms. Ours were 12' tall with gold fancy capitals and sculpted looking bases - most of all of that was made from blue (or you could use pink) insulation foam. Spray painting it gold might eat the foam as some solvent based paint will. SO what I did was paint them flat black first and that sealed the foam so spray painting it with gold paint didn't eat into the foam. BUT we "stacked" the concrete forms together putting in 4 small blocks of wood about 2" wide by 6" long, in each one and screwed from the outside to the inside. Then we stacked the next form and secured that to the wooden blocks with wood screws. By the way you CAN get 6" and/or 8" concrete forms too - they need not be 12" for only 7' forms unless you want really heavy looking columns. Also we cut 1" strips of blue sheet foam and glued them on with liquid nails - about 1" apart and the columns looked FLUTED as well. Check the link below and see the photo of one of the columns. The fluting was glued down 1" apart. Being 12' tall we had to add a 4' section atop an 8' section of fluting strips. But it worked. Painted white isn't too obvious. The bases where some lumber (but if I had to do it all again it would be all foam) and also used some pipe insulating foam which is round with a hole in it. Split that in half for the rounded sections around the base and around the capital too. The capital had a base of the cardboard concrete forms with lots of foam to dress it up - including the 1/4" blue foam for those "leaves" at the top. If you need further explanation on how I made them let me know and I'll detail it for you in greater depth.

Good luck.

TonyDi

TRY THESE LINKS

http://i781.photobucket.com/albums/yy96/FXMan_album/column.jpg - http://i781.photobucket.com/albums/yy96/FXMan_album/column.jpg

http://i781.photobucket.com/albums/yy96/FXMan_album/column_base-capital.jpg - http://i781.photobucket.com/albums/yy96/FXMan_album/column_base-capital.jpg

http://i781.photobucket.com/albums/yy96/FXMan_album/column_base.jpg - http://i781.photobucket.com/albums/yy96/FXMan_album/column_base.jpg

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"Almost famous"

Posted By: pdavis69
Date Posted: 7/01/09 at 8:34am

We have had very good luck with large diameter PVC pipe. This can be painted like marble, granite, concrete whatever you need. The local home supply company might not carry the large diameter, but they can order it in.

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Patrick L. Davis
Fort Findlay Playhouse

Posted By: Mr. Lowell
Date Posted: 7/01/09 at 1:40pm

Hi Charlie, I have 8 columns made out of inexpensive cardboard "SonoTube" concrete forms. They are about 8' high and about 1' wide, with wooden tops and bottoms, plus wheels. And they are professionally painted to look like ancient marble. I used them for the throne room in "Narnia the Musical". This season I used them again in a high school production of "The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged".

In this photo you can see three of these tall columns stored up-stage-right near the cyc: http://www.lowell.to/Studio/IMG_4132.JPG - "Abridged"

Where are you located Charlie?

Good luck, Dana

-------------
Mr. Lowell,
Lighting/Set Designer & Tech Director,
for the Linda Sloan Theatre,
in the Davison Center for the Arts,
at Greensboro Day School

Posted By: David McCall
Date Posted: 7/01/09 at 7:15pm

That is a very attractive set.

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David M

Posted By: Mr. Lowell
Date Posted: 7/01/09 at 10:26pm

Thank you David. I appreciate that.

My design theory on "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged" is what I call "overt theatricality". I imagined that an old troupe of community players slapped together a show out of various stock items they used on every show over the years.

Notice the styrofoam http://www.lowell.to/Studio/IMG_4138.JPG - clouds ...kind of like Monty Python.   (Not to mention the corny "ghost" on a fishing pole!)

And I built 8 three-sided periaktoi out of 24 of my 2' wide stock ground-row flats that I had kicking around for years. We painted them to appear as 3 different stock theatrical http://www.lowell.to/Studio/IMG_4125.JPG - scenes in order to create some vaudevillian http://www.lowell.to/Studio/IMG_4119.JPG - wings.

My low-budget solution to make these periaktoi stand up on their own was to insert a 10' high steel lighting boom inside each of them...so they spin like a roll of paper towels on a spindle! Quick and simple...but most of all, they were "Murphy's Law"-proof!

And I painted the http://www.lowell.to/Studio/IMG_4083.JPG - rustic stage floor with overly-wide planking to help show that these thespians have been "playing the boards" for a long, long time.

Also notice how I used some http://www.lowell.to/Tech/shakeSwords.jpg - PAR cans along the pit as old-fashioned "footlights", as well as our two trap doors. These little touches helped to set the comedy in a "theatre environment". In fact, I didn't use the main drape during pre-show...this staging is what the audience saw as they came in.

Another freebie: The comedy calls for a http://www.lowell.to/Studio/IMG_4142.JPG - "sex scene" to be played out between two puppets! So I dug out a trunk in my attic to find the old puppets from a http://www.lowell.to/posters3/bobbflyer.jpg - TV kids show that I hosted in the 1980's!

The giant castle http://www.lowell.to/Studio/IMG_4102.JPG - turret was recycled from "Into the Woods" 15 years ago!

And the castle http://www.lowell.to/Studio/IMG_4113.JPG - interior was made of stock flats from "Taming of the Shrew" seven years ago! After all these years I finally found a good use for those stock flats...at zero expense!   I mounted these flats on the same rolling wagon that I used just two weeks earlier as the big http://www.lowell.to/Tech/GreaseBandFuzzy.JPG - bandstand in "Grease"!

Speaking of that middle school production of "Grease" - it called for a bar to be used center stage during the http://www.lowell.to/Tech/GreaseLivingroom.JPG - living room scene. Well two weeks later, I re-used this same bar in "Shakespeare, Abridged" for a brief http://www.lowell.to/Studio/IMG_4115.JPG - "cooking show" gag.

So, with a little "creative recycling", this entire set for "Shakespeare, Abridged" cost me just 300 bucks for paint and supplies!

Anyhow, back to Charlie's original topic about making columns. Here are two more photos of my "marble" columns from a 5th grade musical: Photo 1 - http://www.lowell.to/Tech/DSC_0848.JPG - Narnia Columns. Photo 2 - http://www.lowell.to/Tech/DSC_0845.JPG - Narnia Column, Close-up

And this is a good picture of the columns being used in a comical scene from http://www.lowell.to/Tech/shakeColumns.jpg - "Shakespeare Abridged".

These columns are light-weight, cheap, and easy for actors to roll around. Frankly, if you lived in my area I would gladly rent or loan them to you. Otherwise, good luck with your project! Break a leg, Dana

-------------
Mr. Lowell,
Lighting/Set Designer & Tech Director,
for the Linda Sloan Theatre,
in the Davison Center for the Arts,
at Greensboro Day School

Posted By: edesigns
Date Posted: 7/24/09 at 12:41am

These columns are beautiful!! Great job!!

Posted By: Kim L.
Date Posted: 7/24/09 at 4:13pm

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the set pictures. I loved both columns and I loved all the sets from Mr. Lowell

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Kim

Posted By: GElliott
Date Posted: 10/03/09 at 9:37am

You gotta love this discussion board. We are trying to design columns for an upcoming production. I think the concrete forms will work great for us. Thanks you guys. The links look great, Dana.

Posted By: startingout
Date Posted: 10/05/09 at 2:40pm

I used cardboard concrete tubes for pouring cement

I took 2 tubes (48inches) match them together

I then got a 5gal pail cut the top off to use for the sleeve in the middle

put some screws through and duct tape and paint

I also put one of these pails inthe bottom with some sand or weight so the thing doen't tip over

Staringout