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This content was published: March 5, 2015. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.

The technical behind the artsy: Machine Tech helps ‘Hairspray’

Story by Kate Chester. Photos by James Hill.

It’s the artistry of the technical that makes PCC’s winter term play — “Hairspray: The Broadway Musical” — look so realistic.

PCC Sylvania’s Machine Manufacturing Technology department ran about 20 four- by eight-foot panels using its CNC router to create and cut a pattern that resembled a brick wall. The Theatre Arts Department then painted the panels a dark reddish color, followed by rolling the surface with a rusty red paint and then a light dusting of white and gray speckles to create the production’s “brick walls.”

“It was fun to participate with another department — not one we might normally partner with — in this term’s play,” said Pat Kraft, instructor in Machine Manufacturing. “We have the equipment to create the old brick-walled city scenes they needed. Why go to an outside vendor to have the walls created when we can do it in-house?”

“Hairspray” will be performed at the Sylvania Campus Performing Arts Center (12000 SW 49th Avenue, Portland, 97219) from Friday, March 6 through Sunday, March 15. For more information and ticket details, visit the Theater Arts webpage.