FAST CLASS
FAST CLASS By Props Master
How to make stage props 1
Comb through the script several times
and make a list of props you think you’ll need. In Illuminating Voices, one play was about the statues in front of Mundelein, and so I knew we’d need wings, halos, and the objects the statues are holding—a book and torch, and a globe with a cross.
2
Research the look and feel you’ll want
your props to have. The research for the statue props was as simple as it gets—we stood outside Mundelein and snapped photos.
3
Think about the ma- terial qualities you
need your props to have. I knew that the material for the wings would have to be something I could carve in order to recre- ate the stone detail. So I chose a dense pink foam, like the kind you’d use to insulate a house. I drew a pattern, and then traced it onto the foam with a tool called a pounce wheel (which is like a pizza cutter with a toothed wheel). Then I used a hot knife to cut it out of the foam and spackled it.
4
Give your materi- als the right look.
All of the props had to look like they were made out of stone, so I found a textured paint treat- ment that I painted onto the wings, the book, the torch, the ball, and the wooden cross that we had to attach to the ball. I had students do detailing on highlight and shadow.
5
Always be on the lookout. I’ll walk
up and down the aisles at stores looking for things I need, and I’ll very frequently find a solu- tion that way. For the two halos, I had to figure out how to make something that could be mounted to the pedestals the actors were standing on. When I was at the hardware store, I found round heat vents and that’s just what the halos ended up being.
6
Most importantly, be flexible. Things can
change through the re- hearsal process, and a prop- maker has to adapt. For the globe, they originally wanted it to bounce as part of a visual gag. I bought an inflatable ball and gave it the paint treatment, but the challenge was there’s really no good way to at- tach a wooden cross to an inflatable ball. We ended up sort of precariously gluing it but, but they didn’t end up bouncing it in the show in the end. As a rule, the thing you spent the most time on or that has been the most difficult will get cut. You just have to be able to adapt.
WINTER 2012
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