The raft for Big River was requested by the director and designer to move as freely as possible without effort by the actors. The original design called for a low profile bicycle inside the raft. Since the effort to move a raft 6'x 10 ' would be quite great, I offered the use of an electric wheel chair base from SIU. The raft was engineered to fit a crew member inside for the run of the show with only an intermission break. The seat and leg rests were fitted with upholstery foam for comfort.