The document summarizes the creation of a flat for the set of the musical "In the Heights". The flat was designed to look like an apartment in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. Key details included dirtying the flat with dark paint to portray the poor community and using polystyrene bricks and adhesive to give the illusion of brick walls. While the set captured the vibrant yet run-down social context of the neighborhood, improvements could be made to the adhesive and painting process to avoid material waste and mess.

1. GC5: Evaluation of In the Heights
Introduction
The product I created for in the Heights was a flat for the set. More specifically, I created flat
5 on stage right. This was used to give the illusion that it was the door of an apartment
above another apartment on the lower deck.
Pros
A strength of my piece was that it fits in the social context of the
play. The play is set in the borough of Washington Heights in New
York. Washington Heights is a close South American community
that are quite poor. So I showed this by dirtying the flat up by dry
brushing dark shades of brown and black onto the flat. This gave
the illusion that the flat was dirty and in a poor community. This
fits in social context with the play.
Another strength of my flat is that we used cladding to give the
illusion that it was bricks. We used polystyrene bricks so it
wouldn’t weigh the set down and it was 3D so it further gave the illusion of bricks. As in my
first point we also “dirtied up” the bricks by dry brushing darker shades of brown/black on
to the polystyrene. This fits in with the social context of the play because it gives the illusion
that the neighbourhood is poor and run-down.
Looking at the whole set, there are lots of areas that worked well.
For example, the bodega (shop) was painted vibrant colours to
show the audience that the community is vibrant and colourful. Also
the awning on the bodega is old and dirty. This shows that the
bodega although colourful, is in a run-down neighbourhood. Both
these points link in with the social context of this play. A colourful
close knit community but they live in a poor area.
Next to the bodega there is the salon. We painted to salon
pink to fit in in with the vibrant colours of the bodega next
door. On the edges of the salon we have polystyrene bricks
which help it blend in with the rest of the set. Also with a full
female staff working at the salon we thought that pink was
the correct colour and this spoon feeds the audience that the
salon is run by girls.

2. Finally, at the back of the set there was steps leading up
to backdrop of the bridge. The steps leading up to the
bridge we painted grey to give the illusion that is was
concrete and we also stuck polystyrene bricks on to steps
dry brushed them dark grey to dirty them up to give the
illusion that they were run down. This fits in socially with
the play. Furthermore, the bridge is based on the George
Washington Bridge which overlooks Washington Heights.
We used rope to make it look like the supports on a
bridge. We used 4 flats to make the archway of the
bridge. 2 flats placed horizontal and 2 flats vertical either side of the archway. We painted
them brown to make it fit in with the play. This fits in geographically with the play.
Cons
Firstly, the glue that help
the polystyrene bricks in
place melted the
polystyrene which meant if the brick wasn’t stuck down quick enough it wouldn’t stick and
the brick would have to be replaced wasting materials. If we were to improve this we would
use a different glue and test it first to see if it didn’t melt the polystyrene.
Also another practical issue with the set is that the polystyrene flaked in little balls. This
created 2 problems in its self. Firstly, the polystyrene had to be swept up just hours before
the show. And the second problem was we painted the bricks then stuck them on and as the
polystyrene balls came off the paint went on the set floor and the floor had to be moped.
This happened just hours before the show.
Conclusion
In conclusion I think the set was success as the set worked well both practically and
contextually. If we were to improve I would use a different adhesive to stick the polystyrene
on and ensure that the bricks are painted and dried before they go on the flats.