A Cart for Tevye

This is one of the carts I did for Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. But, I did not build it from scratch. It started out as a vintage cart, about 100 years old. That age gives it a teriffic look but it is far from being a working prop. In particular, it could NOT withstand Tevye sitting on it. At all.

I made all of the frame underneath, the handles and the seat. I was able to preserve all of the vintage sides and hardware. You may notice that there is very substantial reinforcement under the seat so the front legs are absolutely level and solid. This cart wobbles not at all. So here's the side view:

And here's how it looks from the front. The nice thing about this rebuild is that I replaced all of the frame underneath while keeping the visible vintage parts intact. (There were even some hand forged nails in the frame.)

Notice, however, that the cart's main job is to be a working prop! That means Tevye had better be able to sit on it without wondering what's going to happen next. An actor is entitled to not worry about his props. They should only add to the actors work and support him. In this case, support all 200 pounds of him.

By the way, the homeless guy in the top picture is me. I was the Beggar in this production as well as prop maker. Pretty nice fake beard, yes? Of course yes! The show was in a 440-seat house with a number of Equity actors.