Students in previous classes have made dioramas or three-dimensional set designs, but in this year’s 3-week class, I had two students take really unique and ambitious approaches to the diorama style, with large scale replica of the church from “Jerusalem’s Lot” (in King’s 1978 Night Shift collection) and a sculpted clay cross-section of the lake in “The Raft” (in King’s 1985 collection Skeleton Crew). 

Maddie Bradshaw’s church from Jerusalem’s Lot is enormous and wonderfully detailed. She blended together the descriptions from King’s short story and the church featured the Epix series Chapelwaite (2021) for the basic structure of the church itself, then upped the ante by making the structure accessible through a removable roof for the vestibule and a hinged front (along with a removable steeple for easier storage). 

Her attention to the textual details of King’s story and the setting are remarkable. For example, she noted that in the story, when Charles and Calvin first visit the church, they “stepped into a long vestibule equipped with a dusty coat rack and and shelved hymnals” (12), which led her to create a miniature coat rack, bookshelves, and books to place in that area of the church. Maddie’s attention to the details of the other components of the church are similarly impressive: for example, she built a series of jumbled pews for the interior that include hand-drawn wood-grain lines and pew-back racks for holding hymnals, and she used plastic wrap and alcohol markers to create stained glass windows, with five featuring traditional Biblical scenes and the sixth depicting the coming of the worm. 

In addition to her close attention to the details and representation of place, Maddie’s church also captures a specific narrative moment, with Charles Boone’s encounter with the worm, which is here rising through the floor at the front of the church. Maddie’s arrangement of the elements within the church—like the upended pews, the dark trails in the aisle, and the sacrificial lamb—very effectively work with and amplify the intensity and chaos of this moment, as well as the dark reality and significance of this place. 

(“Jerusalem’s Lot” page numbers are from the 1978 Doubleday hardcover edition of Night Shift.)