The Lion King JR.
I gained my current qualifications (see 'About Me') at St Mary's Sixth Form College. During my time there I had significant involment with the theatre department, offering my help in the design and creation of the props for their productions.
The first project I was given to work on was a production of The Lion King and it certainly was a case of being thrown in at the deep end. Having already seen the standard of my work, the teachers gave me full responsibility for the design and build of the sets, props and puppets for the production. I designed and built the majority of the props myself. As this was done mainly in my own free time, I needed to engage other students to help with the shere volume of work. I took on a team of ten students to help me with the decoration of the props and costumes, giving me my first experience as a production manager.
Six gazelles, five lions, four wildebeests, three hyenas, two elephants, a meerkat and a warthog (and that's not even the full list) and we had a production ready and raring to go. The actors were amazing, every performance was spectacular and the pride I felt seeing all my work showcased was indescribable. The compliments I received from people, made me feel that all my hard work had been worthwhile. As a result of my work and commitment, I won the Year 12 award for Outstanding Effort & Commitment.
The images above showcase my work in their finished states, but it was many months before they actually reached their final appearance. In the gallery to your left you can see the stages of construction they underwent, from trying to figure out how to make a conical rhino horn to making a working mechanism for a hyena's mouth.
While The Lion King was certainly the largest of my school projects, it was by no means the only one. Having seen my skillset from this production, I was asked to help with another project the school had in mind for a small performance. In this gallery you can see my addition of the character 'Bottom' from William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.