Properties
Podcast Recommendation: Silk Flowers & Papier Mache Hearts
Calling all props makers, artists, and designers! Looking for some inspiration, education, or want to learn more about your craft? Check out the podcast Silk Flowers & Papier Mache Hearts – A podcast which discusses the world of props in the performing arts and beyond, and features interviews from professionals from Broadway, regional theatre, and more. Silk Flowers & Papier Mache Hearts has new episodes out every Tuesday. You can listen to the latest episode HERE. You can follow the podcast on Twitter here: @SilkMache The podcast is co-hosted by prop master Eric Hart ( Prop Building Guidebook: For Theatre, Film, and TV, and The Prop Effects Guidebook: Lights, Motion, Sound, and Magic) and prop master Ashley Flowers. Learn more.
Crafting Aluminum Blades for Stage
Weapons experts J. Allen Suddeth and J. David Brimmer give insight into the trend of using aluminum blades for the stage. Having first used these blades back in the 1990’s, these weapons masters have developed their techniques to create blades that can be seen on stage from the audience, as well as last for the run of a show. Learn how and why their use of aluminum could be beneficial and perhaps something you may apply to your next production. View Article via www.stage-directions.com
PROPS HOW-TO: DINER STOOLS
Let’s set the scene: It’s 1969. You’re in a diner. You need a place to sit. Low and behold: there is a bar and some stools. You have found your seat! But, you may be asking yourself, “How did these stools get made?!” Props master Eric Hart walk you though his design process for creating stools for Two Trains Running by August Wilson at Triad Stage. READ ARTICLE via www. props-eric.hart.com
The Fake Food Cookbook
The Fake Food Cookbook: Props You Can’t Eat for Theatre, Film, and TV created by Karestin Harrison and Tamara L. Honesty from Focal Press is a handy new resource for prop makers in all areas of the entertainment industry. Learn more and give it a try: READ ARTICLE via www.stage-directions.com
Head Prop Maker Pierre Bohanna Talks ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald’
via www.theknockturnal.com To celebrate the final trailer for “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” Warner Bros. hosted an epic fan event in New York City on Monday, September 24. After getting all of the scoop on the costumes from Colleeen Atwood, we headed to the other side of 38 Parlor Loft to The Wand Room. Here all of the key wands were on display and Head Prop Maker Pierre Bohanna gave us some insight into his work on the film: The Knockturnal: Did you work on the last film as well? Pierre Bohanna: I did, yes! Luckily, I did the last film. We also did all of the Potter films as well. The Knockturnal: So you’ve been doing this for years? Pierre Bohanna: Yes. Somehow I’ve made a career out of it. The Knockturnal: That’s incredible. And so tell me about the vision for the part...
USITT19 CONFERENCE REGISTRATION – NOW OPEN!
Registration Info More than 300 exhibitors will span across 43,000 square feet of Stage Expo floor demonstrating new products, speaking with attendees, and displaying the industry’s latest and greatest. Four days of technical theatre and live entertainment innovation under one roof makes for an technical theatre industry lover’s dream 5,000 + attendees will take part in over 200 sessions and educational opportunities providing credits, knowledge, and new tips and tricks USITT Conference We’ve been waiting for you! USITT19 is an extravaganza of technical theatre wonder. The industry’s top companies collide with attendees providing a hub for innovation, new technology, education, and networking. The Stage Expo floor delivers a show like no other while over 200 educational sessions and hands-...
Props Fabricator: Fur, Foam & Focus
BY: MICHAEL EDDY via www.stage-directions.com In The Shop with Props Fabricator Zoë Morsette Zoë Morsette knew at an early age that she wanted to work in the theater. Inspired by a childhood filled with art and summer theater on Cape Cod where she grew up, Morsette completed her BA in theater and dance at Skidmore College in 1973 and then moved to NYC. She worked as a milliner at Radio City Music Hall for two years and then as a shop supervisor and fabricator in the display industry for five years. Freelance since 1984, Morsette has built props, models, costumes, and puppets for 51 Broadway productions, dozens of commercials and print ads, feature films, television shows, theme parks, ice shows, ballets, operas, and the Macy’s Parade. Morsette spoke with Stage Directions to discuss her wor...
A Day in the Life of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Head of Props
BY KATE YOUDE via www.inews.co.uk It’s a little bit like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates: you never know what you’re going to get,” says Alan Smith of his job. A pig’s head takes pride of place on one of the cluttered benches in his dark workshop, while a hound’s skull peers down from a shelf. Both are fibreglass – for Smith is head of costume props, footwear and armoury at the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he brings designers’ artistic visions to life. He made Captain Hook’s hook for Wendy & Peter Pan and Miss Trunchbull’s prosthetic body for the original production of Matilda the Musical. A gold lamé bondage suit sticks in his mind, although he can no longer remember the show it was for. “I’ve done some very strange things,” he admits. Recent project...
How -To: Benches from ‘Beautiful Star’
BY ERIC HART via http://www.props.eric-hart.com A few months ago, Triad Stage put on their Christmas show, Beautiful Star. Though it was a remount, it had some major design changes this year. For the props shop, we needed to build six church benches that could be rearranged throughout the show to create various “locations.” For the quatrefoil cut-out, I laid out the pattern with a compass and cut it with a jigsaw. I sanded it smooth using a sanding drum that was nearly the same diameter as the individual circles in the pattern. Cutting the quatrefoils I took the time to make one of the quatrefoils as perfect as possible, and then used a pattern cutting bit on my router to cut the rest of the side panels. I needed twelve panels for the six benches I was making. So many panels The team wante...
Props from Hamilton & More Featured Up Close in New Exhibit
BY RUTHIE FIERBERG via www.playbill.com Pieces by the Public Theater’s Jay Duckworth and other prop masters will be on display in the new exhibit Props and Fine Art From Movies, Television & Theatre at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, opening in March. A hero prop is any item meant to be used by a show’s leading actor. That could be a letter, like the one Phillipa Soo burned in Hamilton, or Shylock’s money box, like the one Al Pacino held in The Merchant of Venice (both featured in the exhibit). Props are the object you don’t think about—and aren’t supposed to. “I’m sure you have seen my team’s work before, but I hope that you have never noticed it,” says Duckworth. “Unfortunately, that is the goal for a props master is to be so seamless our work only catches the eye whe...
Don’t Glue Anything! ….Unless You Have This Handy Chart
via www.makezine.com For years I wondered why all my beautiful small-scale models kept falling apart. I underestimated the most important factor: adhesive. You can glue almost everything with super glue — but some materials just won’t stay together. Is it possible to glue rubber to glass? Will plastic stick to wood? Once you mix several different materials, it can get really confusing. For those moments it’s convenient to have a handy table that gives a quick overview. View Original Article
How to Make Breakaway Glass with Isomalt
BY ERIC HART via http://www.props.eric-hart.com Now that the holidays have passed, I am back to posting companion videos for my upcoming book, The Prop Effects Guidebook. The latest is on how to make a breakaway glass using isomalt. Isomalt has a lot of advantages over cane sugar, and it is not much more expensive. Most of the work in this video was done by my assistant at the time, Lisa Bledsoe. We needed a breakable whiskey glass for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, so she made a mold of a real glass and figured all of this stuff out. I bought the isomalt from Make Your Own Molds, which also has some great tutorials to help you get started with making breakaway glass. I will be releasing more of these companion videos as we draw closer to the book’s release. You can watch all of them on YouTube. T...
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