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Woolly Mammoth's SPAIN Tree: Final Resting Place?

Matt and I attended the 2002 Woolly Mammoth Theatre fund raising event, part of which was a silent auction. Well, not knowing quite what we were getting into we bid on the "SPAIN Tree" from the Woolly Mammoth's production of SPAIN (December 2001). The Set designer for that production was Robin Stapley, the tree was built by Carlos Bustamante, and painted by Jenny Cockerham.

The tree is also commemorated on an elephant that the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company created for the Party Animals Project in Washington, DC. You can see him this Summer (2002) at 2099 Pennsylvania Avenue NW (21^st & Penn). He's not out yet (5/25/02), but it should be soon.

Regarding the Woolly Mammoth Theatre involvement with the Party Animals Project, Hana Sellers of the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company writes:

"Our concept was to transform an elephant into a woolly mammoth. We then charted his evolution on one side of his body, with photos and a model box. On the other side of his body we charted the evolution of our set for Spain. There is a series of photos showing the tree from concept to completion."

Anyhow, at the auction, the tree was billed as a nine foot by nine foot metal tree, designed to be viewed from the front. Turns out we placed the winning bid, and a few days later, with the able assistance of the theatre stage crew, the tree arrived. Here is the story of how the tree arrived at it's current location.

The tree construction consists of a trunk of several pieces of rectangular steel tubes welded together, to which a series of square steel bars are attached for branches. The twigs consist of segments of BX electrical cable. The trunk and larger branches are covered with wiring harness covering plastic. The entire tree is painted in varying shades of tan and brown. It weighs somewhat less than 100 pounds, and extends up about nine feet, and has a roughly similar span.

The tree arrives at the curb..

Well, now that we can actually see the tree, the next question is...

Now what???

After a bit of deliberation, and welding, and only a little cussing, the tree was ready for it's debut.

Here is the tree, installed.

It was suggested that if we coated the tree with polyurethane it would extend it's current appearance, otherwise it'll tend to rust. For now we'll see how the patina evolves.

In case you're a student of welding, STOP HERE!!! The following images might hurt your eyes... Where welding is concerned, I have a ways to go. In any case, the tree is still standing a few days later, so at least hasn't fallen over like an old souffle.

A view of the base, welded from re-bar.

Two bars are welded to the center, criss-cross fashion...

And braces go from the trunk toward the ends of the legs. A couple of hooks help tie the tree down to the ground.

We hope you enjoyed the show!

Pete & Matt

This page and all included photographs are Copyright © 2002 by Peter Hartzler.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections.
A copy of the GNU Free Documentation License license is available at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html.