I have many skills that I might put to use as a props master. Picking produce is not one that I use very frequently, so my confidence level is not especially high. Endless gratitude to the nice young man stocking the produce section at HEB for helping me feel better that this precious little watermelon might actually be ready for tonight's rehearsal as we prepare to open Lisa B. Thompson's Single Black Female at @groundfloortheatre this week. #theatrelife #adventuresinprops #tricksyproduce https://www.instagram.com/p/B8cLI5HFMnP/?igshid=yw6fhb0hazz8

I was warned that the final scene sometimes got intense enough that the final "aged" prop letter got seriously crumpled, so I made seven copies, fully expecting to have to make more I have a whole pile of discarded copies of the first version of the letter that have the wax seal broken on stage and can therefore only be used once in that form - I was planning to stain/age some of those as we went. To their (unendingly sweet and conscientious) credit, Patrick and Liz somehow managed to get through the first four weeks of performances with only one of these poor, delicate, paint-soaked and well-folded bits of parchment needing to be retired. Now there are more letters left than remaining performances in the run. I'm looking forward to seeing Cyrano and Roxane take the show - and my letters - out with a bang this weekend. 💌 Three shows left! https://www.thearchivetheater.org/ @thearchivetheater #cyrano #adventuresinprops #propletters #propsdesign #theatrelife (at Austin Scottish Rite Theater) https://www.instagram.com/p/B25xgJ2lpi4/?igshid=8b19uaxbqvut

Well we had a cute little silk purse for Cyrano to toss onto the stage in one of the early scenes, but after the first week, between the sweet replica coins and the rough wooden stage, the purse was... A bit worse for wear. I happened to have a bit of close-enough fabric in my stash, so I stitched together a new bag with reinforced seams, and then coated the bottom in a layer of fabric glue and then some paint to cover the just not at all subtle texture of the glue. End result looked kind of leathery, so I'll take it. Good enough for the ten foot rule! (And rugged enough to be tossed a couple dozen more times.) #adventuresinprops #theatrelife #coinpurse #cyrano #props #propbuild https://www.instagram.com/p/B2dSADxlx8B/?igshid=1s601a4rjymrr

I mean... C'mon! I *HAD* to do it right! #completionist #newskill #bookbinding #adventuresinprops #propbuild #cyrano (at Austin Scottish Rite Theater) https://www.instagram.com/p/B2LFVsqFlSt/?igshid=5da0lg71s28k

The last Cyrano prop was absolutely frivolous and just for my own satisfaction. There's a bit in the play where a book of poetry is ripped up to be made into paper cones for baked goods. We've gone to the trouble of making a ton of the paper cones for use at consessions - just plain letter-sized printer paper in a warm ivory color, with a bunch of 17th century French poetry I hunted down online printed in an old font that looks like the product of a 17th-century press. Some of those same cones get used as props, so the audience is getting to see the thing they just got with their pastry also used on stage. It's one of MANY sweet little immersive touches in this production. To save time, I just bought a plain sketchbook and painted the exterior for use as the prop, but the interior pages are WHITE and very clearly have nothing printed on them, to anyone paying attention (yes, I know it is a very small subset of the audience that pays this kind of attention, but these are the kinds of details that keep me up at night). I've been facinated by book binding for a long time, and learned the basics in theory, but never really had a good excuse to try my hand at it. Well... the excuse finally arrived. I printed out the next batch of cone pages, pulled together the cardboard, thread, glue, and fabric from my various stashes at home, and cut down two manilla folders out of a combination of laziness and fear that I'd need to reinforce that particular joint because HOLY CRAP I'M MAKING A PROP BOOK IN TWO DAYS WHEN I'VE NEVER MADE A BOOK BEFORE. It turned out to be a great exercise in working *efficiently* (not just *quickly*, but also *thoughtfully*, to avoid wasting time with mistakes), and being ok with some ugliness. The inside of the cover is a MESS, but the audience will never see that. They'll see a pretty cover, they'll see paper that matches the paper in their hands (some of the pages went straight out of the book and into the basket at consessions), and they'll see an actor rip that paper right out of the book and make the cone right there in front of them. I am stupidly happy with this build. #adventuresinprops #newskill #propbuild #bookbinding #cyrano https://www.instagram.com/p/B2KuGnhF1Bz/?igshid=zoph73976j6l

The great sealing wax odyssey continues, as the dress rehearsals uncovered a couple of unforeseen issues with some of the dressing processes, and I decided to upgrade from the little wax sticks with wicks to the tiny-spoon-and-candle method, for the sake of my sanity (and efforts not to set off the smoke detector in my apartment). Now I just wait to see how long the "reusable" letters actually hold up, and hopefully get to recycle some of the single-use letters as the distressed letters require replacement down the road. #propsdesign #propbuild #propstationary #waxseal #adventuresinprops #newtoys #theatrelife #cyrano https://www.instagram.com/p/B14o0QRFjmC/?igshid=1avyx8or8o7a

At the end of Cyrano, Roxanne is supposed to be working on a large piece of embroidery. As much as I adore the thought of intentionally making a giant, partially-finished piece of embroidery with all my copious spare time, Jennifer had a much better idea - we got a large standing needlework/quilting frame, and a finished tapestry, then I aged the frame and took apart the tapestry in such a way that it looks like a work in progress. There's a good third of a bottle of Fabri-Tac holding all those cut edges together, and the tapestry is tacked down to what used to be its backing. Took a few hours of work to fake a few weeks worth of stitching. #propsdesign #propbuild #stagemagic #adventuresinprops #theatrelife #cyrano https://www.instagram.com/p/B119-Wnlkyv/?igshid=g912p27v5x8w

When I say most of my work on TRANSom was *just* curation, that's not really fair. There's nuance to it. But it's really fun nuance. Seven actors have built out seven characters that they've now spent months with. They each have very distinct personalities, based in part on the actors themselves, but also these fictional lives that were developed during the devising process. Large parts of my process involved getting to know those characters and figuring out what their day to day existence looked like. In two cases, that involved assembling a little bit of personal "flair" - a backpack for a teenager, and a laptop covered in stickers for The Responsible One. I... possibly had too much fun with these two props. I felt a little bit like an over-enthusiastic aunt shopping for her nephew while collecting buttons and patches for the backpack. I even made some extra stickers, because of course some of the crew wanted their own "FUCK YEAH SPREADSHEETS" sticker. 🤣 It's the little things, y'know? #adventuresinwardrobe #adventuresinprops #theatrelife #costumedesign #propsdesign https://www.instagram.com/p/B1R5Bq4llyA/?igshid=1ik14ioix20j7