I volunteered at the theater, building sets and props for 15 years. My contribution in helping build this bi-plane for "Drowsy Chaperone" was to engineer it to allow moving it on and off stage.

For "Peter Pan" a ships wheel was needed, so I built this one in my shop:

In "The Grapes of Wrath" we needed a model "T" truck so we built one. I made the wheels in my shop and figured out how to build up the fenders in the theater shop using layers of 1/4" plywood.

One of the parts of the set for "Man of La Mancha" was this over 24 foot long spiral ramp which I helped build:

Above is the framework for the ramp, below is how it looked ready for painting later the same day.

For the same set, we built a draw bridge with steps that come down from 9 feet onto the ramp. These are pulleys I made for the chains and ropes we used to lift the outer end of the bridge.

The bridge in the upright position. You can see the chains and some of the pulleys if you look closely.

This is the second pulley as mounted in the grid with the chains.

The counterweights balance the weight of the bridge, and the loop line, which is used to raise and lower the bridge from behind the set.