Giant weevil automaton for a stage production

When faced with the huge challenge of creating giant weevil for a stage production, a team at Texas Performing Arts at the University of Texas at Austin came up with the elegant solution shown in the video above. J. E. Johnson, Scene Shop Supervisor at Texas Performing Arts, wrote to explained how it came together.

About the giant weevil:

In the entertainment industry we often make use of deck winches. These winches operate a cable that is hidden in a track below the stage deck to move scenery. Some of our deck winches are powered by powerful three phase motors and show control software and some are hand operated. By connecting a leg moving mechanism to a wheel and pulling it across the stage like a pull toy with a hand operated winch we didn't need any motors or remote control units. This lack of high tech brought the cost of construction down enough so that it could be retained as part of the set design.

A number of team members contributed to this collection of metal, wood and plastic to create one beautiful giant weevil, which trundled its way across the stage every night of a ten performance run without mishap. Outstanding!

More about the production, The Difficulty of Crossing a Field, cant be found at: here and here.

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