Building A Small Portable Bar For A Stage Set Pub!

Build a portable bar set for theatre - ideal for street theatre, or if you have to carry it around a lot.

I have been creating a rough period bar for a community theatre show.

Now of course with us lot its got to be something you can dismantle and carry in bits - frequently under your arm or on the bus.

You will need:

- a folding wall-paper table

- 2 or 4 VERY heavy duty large card or cork display boards, (each the height of the table and the width of each should be equal to half the length of the table.)

- wood effect vinyl flooring planks

- carpet tacks or small nails

- hammer

- sharp scissors

- 2 lightweight planks of wood, each the height of your wallpaper table

The wallpaper table is the top of your bar.

Set the table up and measure its height.

Then, cut the height of your display boards to the same height as the wall paper table, and each of your boards should be a couple of inches more than the width of half the length of the table.

Now, having cut the display boards to the required size, you can add the vinyl flooring "planks" to them.

Lay a board flat on a hard (ideally stone) surface, and follow the instructions on the packet for laying them as a floor, re-enforce this glue by nailing them to the board - if the nails are too long for the depth, turn the boards over after this, and hammer the end of the nails back over against the back of the board. Complete this for both boards - you will now have two wood effect boards.

Now, the middle of the bar is likely to be messy as the two boards will be propped against the wall-paper table, and gaffa-taped (out of sight.) so to cover this unseemly join, get another of your vinyl boards, cut to the height of the wall paper table, and then nail one side of it to one "middle" side of your display boards. Leave the other side free to overlap the other board.

Let the outside ends overlap the sides of the table - and you can add two smaller boards made the same way to cover each end of the table as well.

Now these boards are likely to be floppy, so nail a wood plank to the middle of the back of each board, vertically, to keep them stiff.

Finally, set it all up, you should have something like the bar in my photo.

Make sure the middle upright of the wood lays against the board edge it is covering, so unlike in my photo, you will want to again put a bit of gaffa tape on the back.

Finally - finishing touches! youll want to get some old tankards, clean the modern labels off some bottles, and get an old ragged cloth for the landlord..

Built and article written by Laura J from the South Devon Players theatre company

The completed bar