By Mark Wells
mwells@elberton.com
Weeks before the stage lights of the Elbert Theatre come on and theater-goers are transported to the house from “Clue,” the Orient Express or even Texas, master carpenter Pat Bell can be found hard at work building and painting the unique sets that bring shows to life.
When “Clue: On Stage,” directed by Elbert Theatre Manager Toni King and Gunnar Hartley, opens this weekend, Bell’s complex set for the murder-mystery, based on the classic Hasbro board game, will fill the stage.
The “Clue” set will be one of over 40 sets Bell and King estimated Bell has worked on during his 10 years of working with the theater.
“People ask me if I’ve moved in down here and a lot of times you might want to think so because I’m down here all the time,” Bell joked.
The idea to get involved with the theater came shortly before retiring from his job in social security when Kathryn Fernandez asked him to act in a play.
“I had never been on stage or anything else and I said ‘Just ask me when I retire’ and I blew it off,” Bell said. “The second day after I retired, she called me again.”
Fernandez was able to convince him to act in the play “A Murder Most Fouled Up” that the theater was putting on at the time.
“They made me come out on the center of the stage and conjure up a ghost,” Bell said. “I felt like a complete idiot, but after that I said ‘I’ve got to do another one.’ I was hooked.”
Bell started acting in plays and has been a part of 15 to 17 plays as an actor since his first appearance on stage.
While he still acts in plays when needed, he transitioned to building the sets over the years when previous master carpenter, Tom Dedek, stepped down.
With a background in both construction and painting, set building became a natural fit.
The process of building a set starts when a director comes to Bell and tells them what they envision for the play.
Bell and the director will spend around 30 to 45 minutes walking on the stage, discussing what can and can’t be done based on the limitations of the space. Once he and the director are on the same page, Bell begins construction.
Sets are a combination of “stick-built” and “panel-built,” Bell said, depending on the needs of each set.
Stick-built means the set is constructed from the ground up while a panel-built set is made up of manufactured panels that can be re-painted or decorated to fit the setting of the play.
The walls of the “Clue” set are panel-built, but the entry way, which houses a large pair of wooden double doors and real glass windows, is entirely stick-built.
The “Clue” set, which Bell said he has been working on for over a month, is tied with a set from “The Addams Family” for the most complex set he’s ever built.
While “The Addams Family” set was complex due to the amount of props and other things that were placed in front of the constructed portion of the set, the “Clue” set has multiple different rooms that had to be constructed.
The rooms are all complete with various decorations and even trap doors, which are moved in and out of the audience’s view throughout the play, to keep up with how the story moves to throughout the house.
In a matter of moments after a scene ends and the lights dim, stage crew hands quickly rearrange the moving set pieces to show an entirely new setting when the light come on again.
“The lights dim and [the set] moves out and that’s when you get the audience’s ‘Oh my God’ and to me that’s the best part of it,” Bell said.
As a part of the sets, Bell will paint murals to be used as backdrops for different scenes. The hand-painted murals can sometimes take over a month to complete.
When one play is finished and it’s time for Bell to start on the next mural, the latest mural is painted over with primer and all of his work is erased.
In addition to the backdrops on massive sheets of canvas, Bell will paint details on the panels that make up the walls of each set.
In “Clue,” the set is centered around the foyer of an old home with walls that appear to be covered in wallpaper. However, Bell said there is no wallpaper on the wall and that he and King hand-painted the entire wall.
Bell said painting a mural or a set is “especially difficult” as painting has to be done from the perspective of what the audience would be seeing, which makes finding the correct shape and scale a challenge.
“I’ve got to make it look like you’re there,” Bell said. “For [the Clue] set, I want you to feel like you’re in this old house.”
Every weekday, Bell works on the set from 10 a.m. to as late as 5 p.m. until the project is completed. Sometimes he’s still putting final touches on the sets the same day the play opens.
Bell said he could not do what he does without help from volunteers like Bob Larson, Ken Little and Eric Jensen. The group can be found regularly help him with the sets by volunteering their own time and offering an extra set of hands whenever he needs it.
For “Clue,” Bell said the cast members also came and donated their time to help him complete the project.
After a show is completed, Bell said he tries to recycle “about 99 percent” of the set. When new materials are needed, the Elbert Theatre depends on donations and sponsorships from businesses and local citizens.
“The sponsors are what build these sets,” Bell said. “Lake Russell [Building Supply] sponsored [the Clue] set and Southern Farm donates to the theater. Anybody that helps the theater, we make sure that we put them on the screen for advertisement and also in the bulletin for a special thank you.”
Bell said props are even donated. The suit of armor featured in the entryway of the clue set might be recognized by audience members as it came as a donation from McIntosh Coffee Shoppe.
When the theater is unable to find a donation for something needed for a show, Bell said it doesn’t come out of a “theater fund” for materials.
Instead, Bell said the theater’s volunteers purchase the materials using their own money or seek sponsorships from local businesses.
“It takes a group of people to do the whole thing,” Bell said.
“Clue” opens at the Elbert Theatre this weekend with performances Sept. 9 through Sept. 11 and Sept. 16 through Sept. 18. Shows will be held at 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays.
Tickets are $11 in advance, $9 for students and $16 at the door. Tickets can be purchased by calling 706-283-1049 or by emailing King at tking@cityofelberton.net.