What is theatre without props? Props give the actors tools with which to work their magic. And props sometimes provide an opportunity for great creativity.
First, a cute aside in regard to props. The then-teenage son of a friend was working on the props crew for a production of Chicago in one of our local theatres. Part of the task involved helping with costume changes backstage. Crew members stage-right had to divide the tasks of helping the femme fatale Roxie Hart actress buckle her shoes as she changed costumes and/or helping a sizable actor don a rice-filled brassiere to put on a woman’s costume. Thinking the young crew member would be shy and perhaps embarrassed about helping Roxie, I offered him the option of getting Ken into the bra. Hmmmm…go figure! He opted for Roxie every time!!
One props panic moment occurred during a production of The Wizard of Oz when the Wicked Witch of the West snagged her outfit on the cauldron and pulled it off its platform, spilling active dry ice all over the stage. With a fast scene change coming up, the props crew and stage manager were frantically trying to figure out how to get the dry ice off the stage…especially since we could not touch it without risk of burning ourselves. Never missing a beat, one of the witch’s flying monkeys led her cohorts, all of whom were on stage at the time wearing gloves as part of their costumes and with buckets and scrub brushes as their props, in sweeping the dry ice into the buckets and carrying it offstage at the scene break. Crisis averted! Thank you, Julie, for your quick-thinking and creativity!
And a classic story that I only heard about (but could absolutely envision and appreciate) involved a long-time theatre member, Maggie, who had reportedly become increasingly frustrated (okay, livid maybe) when a co-performer kept upstaging her throughout one of their acts together early in a show. A later act involved Maggie’s placing a props glass on a table when she exited the stage while the irritating co-performer remained on-stage to deliver a soliloquy. Before the scene Maggie had affixed spirit gum to the bottom of the glass. At her exit, she placed the glass on the edge of the table — half on and half off the table, thanks to the invisible spirit gum. The audience forgot all about the other actor’s soliloquy. All eyes were fixed on the glass, waiting anxiously for it fall off. Score — Maggie one; upstager zero!
Ahhhh…the joys of live theatre!