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Hey theatre thread! I've been meaning to post in here forever, I'm in college right now working towards a degree in design and technical theatre. My emphasis is technically scene design, but I've mostly been working on props and as a carpenter, mainly because I haven't gotten to the design classes yet. Right now I'm in the middle of tech for my first real production staff position. I'm the prop master for my college's production of The Shape of Things. It's not a terribly prop heavy show, but it had some interesting problems (mainly making a can of spray paint that could actually spray onto costumes and not damage them) so it's been a fun, albeit a little stressful, show to work on. My only real question is that since it's such a modern show there's not really a whole lot that I've built, but I need to build my portfolio. Now there are some things that I've done a little graphic design on, spray paint can logo, programs, that sort of thing, but other than those should I just get shots of the props on stage? Before when I took pictures it was always of props I had built, now that I'm basically taking shots of things that I bought it feels sort of weird to me. Then again there are only a couple of scenes that really have a lot of props, so I'll probably only end up using those. I am super excited about finally having stuff to post in here though! I've been working as the assistant scene designer for our production of Lend Me a Tenor, but I won't have any real work until after Shape of Things closes. Then in the spring I'm doing a turn as master carpenter on The Cherry Orchard, which should be a very interesting assignment, as one of our professors is retiring, and the design is his last hurrah. With all this, classwork, and trying to make it to USITT and SETC, it should be a very busy (in a good way) year.
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Sep 23, 2012 19:12
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Rashomon posted:I did a show where one actor had to spray the shirt of another every night. We used tinted hairspray. The color shows up really well (depending on the surface) and it's washable. That's sort of what we ended up using. We found a spray on washable temporary hair dye that looked just like spray paint. Then we used a drill to make sure a can of depleted spray paint was depressurized, I cut into it with a dremel, made a hole in the top for the nozzle, slipped the smaller can of dye inside of the spray paint can (with some foam and hot glue so it would stay in place) then I taped it shut and made a fake label to cover it up. We also scotch guarded the hell out of the jacket so that it could be wiped out instead of being washed every night.
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Sep 23, 2012 22:56
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I know it's really late in the conference, but are there any other tech-goons here at USITT? There's not a whole lot of time to meet up, but it would still be cool to know how many (if any) people are/were here.
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Mar 23, 2013 02:31
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I just got done with my duties as the props master for a production of Cabaret. It's not a particularly difficult show to prop, and there's a lot of fun opportunities to build some really interesting stuff (I got to build a giant champagne bottle with a baby bottle nipple on the end for the MC's baby new year costume) But I swear, I hope I never have to build eight custom telephones again. Especially since we only had four shows and I have to destroy them tomorrow during strike because lighting needs all their parts back.  Then again, we don't really need eight phones that we would likely never use again in our stock.On the plus side it was a pretty fantastic production. I might try to post some pictures once I get them off of my camera. On a more general note I was wondering if anyone else has read The Prop Building Guidebook by Eric Hart? I had a professor loan it to me, and am thinking of picking up my own copy once I'm a little better off cash-wise. I was a big fan of Hart's blog Prop Agenda and had been following the progress of the book for a while. The finished product is an interesting book, and it almost reads like a reference book, as he basically travels through a different subset of materials in every section, and the tools, techniques, and what each different material can be used for. My only issues are that because the book is so general a lot of the techniques are barely covered, and a lot of the tool descriptions leave a lot to desired since they mostly boil down to "This tool is used to do X to Y material" and not a lot past that. The book also has godawful spiral binding, which is meant so that it can lay flat on a work table, but in practice just makes the pages bind up constantly. That being said the book is still excellent, and is a great counterpoint to Thurston James' The Theatre Props Handbook which, while one of the best prop books out there (there aren't terribly many) is extremely specific. If you want step by step instructions on how to make a Russian style tea glasses or a spinning wheel James' books are excellent. However, the usefulness of the book is basically limited to the included projects, and any knowledge you can gleam from those instructions. The fact that it was written before the advent of the internet and rise of certain safety practices also leads to some interesting steps or methods that are no longer practical. But, like I said, I'm interested to hear what other goons think about it. I'm not sure if there are many others who do props on the forums, but if there are I'd still recommend picking it up if you can. I pretty much devour anything new about props that I can get my hands on at this point, since it's such a limited field writing wise, if anyone has any other reading recommendations I'd love to hear them.
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Nov 2, 2013 18:11
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