You might think Hard Rubbish Collection is a time for cleaning out and de-cluttering your junk rooms and garages, but for Catprint it’s a massive opportunity to amass what we need to create the sets for our next 2 shows, for free. It’s almost time to fill my garage, not empty it. It’s almost time to commence the great scrounge.
To accomplish this I post a master list on our Facebook pages when items start hitting the curb and it is a group effort to collect it all. Many eyes make light work! I don’t think a year has passed us by when we have not managed to pick up everything on my list. I love it when someone turns up with just what I am looking for because they spotted it while they were driving up the highway, or when someone sends me a picture of something asking if it fits the bill.
Not only does it save us a fortune, but by re purposing items we are also saving it from landfill too. After the shows, over half of what we have foraged goes into storage for future productions and what is left that we cannot re use again goes back out again the following year.
Over the years we have found a lot of really good stuff;
Most notorious - the biggest & hardest to accumulate was a collection of 33 different chairs, for “Chairs” in 2015. I am still apologising to Liz for making her carry them all around backstage in the correct order. Sorry Liz.
Most beautiful - silk lampshade we used in “Hello from Bertha” in 2018. It was fragile and on its last legs. It had gorgeous silk roses made out of ribbon on it. We changed the trim to red to match our set.
My favorite – heater ducting used as Roberta the Robots outfit in “They Came from Mars...” in 2017. Harder to work with than anticipated and very uncomfortable to wear. Sorry Siobhan. It did get a good laugh though!
Least likely to be recognised - The DJ console in “S. S. Farndale Avenue” was a deconstructed and revamped BBQ. So much quicker than building from scratch.
Least likely to succeed - Ships funnel for “S. S. Farndale Avenue.” It was a big ask. I had no plan B. The breakthrough came with the realisation that it didn’t have to be circular! Thanks Mark (pictured) it was an awesome find. I had literally zero ideas about how we would or could have built one, so you sure saved the day. And all it needed was a coat of paint. Too easy!
Below is a picture of the final items on this years wish list, so please keep your eyes open for us and get in touch if you’ve nabbed us a treasure we can use. Despite needing to create two massive and detailed interiors this year, we already have a lot of what we need due to previous scrounges. A massive thank you to all the residents of the Yarra Valley for putting out such awesome stuff! It means a great deal to us.
Comments