When we received Klara Zieglerova’s set design for The Girl on the Train, she included a reference image of a highly textured concrete wall that would serve as the face of the omnipresent train bridge. Early in the design and budgeting process, Construction Charge Kyle Bodiford, Charge Artist Michelle Fullerton, and Assistant Scenery Director Paul Zapone met and discussed what materials would best serve each element of the design. For these textured concrete panels, the team selected pink insulation foam also called: extruded polystyrene, or XPS. Outside of the theatre, this material is used in construction to insulate walls, roofs, and foundations. In the theatre, we like it because it is relatively inexpensive, lightweight, and easily obtainable (you can pick it up from any home improvement store); but most importantly for this project, it can be transformed into a textured surface.
Before we begin building, the Scenic Art team creates samples, figuring out the treatment process for every design component of the set. Each sample is then approved by the designer. Initially, we thought we could use Acetone to dissolve the surface of the foam to replicate our concrete, but as we tested this, it did not create the craggily rough texture we needed, and instead we were left with some sad melty foam pieces. To get our desired effect, we would have to get physical.
We had our CNC machine, an automated computer driven tool that precisely cuts and shapes material, route out 1 ¾ inch wide channels into a sample piece of pink foam for sampling. Then we used a variety of handheld tools to shape the foam further. The surform rasp works like a cheese grater roughing up the surface of the foam, the linoleum knife (a curved hooked blade) we used to scratch away coarse areas of foam, and the wire brush helped smooth and knock away loose areas of foam. We also added additional texture by making a mix of two construction coatings. Jaxsan is an acrylic latex coating normally used for waterproofing roofs. We combined the Jaxsan with Sto, a ready mixed textured wall coating, and stippled it onto our carved foam. Since the Jaxsan we used was already tinted black, this layer of texture could serve as our base paint. We then followed with a series of light dry brushed layers of paint and a final wash to shift the overall tone of the piece. The result wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t right either.
After discussing with Klara, we decided to do more carving in general, stiffen the consistency of our texture mixture and add a dark wash to the base of the walls. Our team had previously worked with Klara on The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and Lend me a Soprano so she was confident in the changes we would make and approved us moving forward with the real pieces.
Paul had already transposed Klara’s design into a full set of build plans including CNC files, and our Scenery technicians cut the fluted channels and exact shapes needed into all the XPS foam using the CNC. The CNC is a huge time saver in the Scene Shop and made quick work of it; the entire process took just one day. They then attached the panels to their frames using a spray adhesive. Because all of the scenery must be moved from our Scene Shop on the fourteenth floor of the Center for Theatre Production to the ground floor of the Hubbard Stage in the Meredith J Long Theatre Center via freight elevator, it’s designed in pieces to be assembled on the stage during the Load-In process. The Scenery Technicians laid out the separate wall sections on sawhorses in the Scene Shop, and the Scenic Artist team was ready to begin our paint and texture process, but there were some roadblocks standing in the way of us beginning.
The Sto we used for the sample was out of stock, so we had to change to a different formulation. Then, when we mixed this with our new trowel grade Jaxsan we ordered it negated the stiffer consistency, and we were right back where we started with our texture mixture. We needed to thicken the mix slightly, and add a little more texture, so we turned to a product we have used in the past to create textures: Corncob grit. Corncob grit, in our case Grit-o’Cobs, is ground up dried corncobs. Normally used as an abrasive blasting media and absorbent animal bedding, it is a green resource that utilizes corn production waste products. By adding a small amount of these tiny corn pebbles to our mixture, we were able to create more surface variation and thicken our mix perfectly. We let this mixture sit, as the corncob grit tends to swell when introduced to moisture, while we started carving the foam panels.
For the carved texture, we followed the same process as our sample, with help from a power drill and wire brush attachment to speed things along. We did increase the amount of carving across the entire surface, as Klara requested, and the result was already looking more like the concrete of the reference image. Our new texture mixture worked great to enhance the rough crunchy texture and cover and protect our pink foam. Again, we followed the same paint techniques as our sample process, adding a dark wash to the base of the pieces to help anchor them visually.
From carve to finished paint it took our team of three Scenic Artists one week to complete the fluted concrete bridge panels, and they were ready to be assembled on the Hubbard Stage. These more realistic elements juxtapose very nicely with the sleeker and more modern Polycarbonate walls and LED lighting of Klara Zieglerova’s design, helping mirror the play’s themes of distinguishing reality from fiction. It may not have been an entirely smooth process, but we learned a lot along the way and ended up with a really incredible set for this year’s Summer Chills production.
For an in-depth look at the technical details of the process you can read more at The Scenic Route Blog via The Guild of Scenic Artist
About Christie DeBacker
Christie, she/her, currently serves as the Assistant Charge Scenic Artist at the Alley Theatre. This June, she enthusiastically joined the board of the Guild of Scenic Artists as the newly appointed Director of Resources. She is also a mentor for the Theatre Under The Stars Teen Apprentice Program, adjudicator for the Tommy Tune Awards (An official regional program of the National High School Musical Theatre Awards®; The Jimmy Awards®), and occasional display artist. Her display work has been seen around Houston at the Alley Theatre, George R Brown Convention Center and MKT Heights. Christie’s passion for Scenic Art education and accessibility led her to create her growing Tiktok, itschristiegayle, reaching folks across the country and sometimes world, taking them behind the scenes at her regional theatre and sharing Scenic Art and technical theatre education. She holds a BFA in Theatre from Sam Houston State University.
