Ouch

You may have missed a blog post the other day. In addition to spending the whole weekend at tech for Slave Shack at the Algonquin Theatre, I went ahead and stuck a screw gun into my hand.

Punctured, originally uploaded by Eric Hart
Punctured, originally uploaded by Eric Hart

Natalie cleaned and bandaged my wound, but at the end of the day, about 8 hours later, it was still bleeding and fairly swollen. They convinced me to go to the hospital; as the lighting designer pointed out, “It’s your hand, and you make a living with your hands.”

Luckily, Natalie and I had our last Tetanus shots in July, right before our wedding (to make it easier to remember when our last Tetanus shots were). The doctor gave me some antibiotics and this big ol’ bandage you see in the picture above. He told me to not use my hand for two days, and the bleeding should stop sometime this week. Nice.

I could throw in a safety lesson here, to make this more blog-appropriate. Don’t jam things into your hand. But really, most accidents I’ve had or witnessed were during the most mundane tasks, and it’s because your comfort level makes you pay less attention and keep less focus than you should.

But don’t worry, I’ll keep on blogging. Coming up soon is a run-down of the more interesting props in Slave Shack and the challenges they posed. Until then, don’t get screwed like I did!

Friday Link-a-palooza

Here are some more links for your pre-weekend perusement.

  • Ever think your prop shop is too poorly-equipped to make anything well? Here’s the story (actually, a long review of a book) about a Malawian teenager who built a windmill out of scrap parts and garbage to provide electricity for his village.
  • Jesse Gaffney has the first part of a series detailing her process of propping a show.
  • Like Steampunk? Here is a massive chronology of Steampunk works in literature, movies, comics, and stage.

Historic Description of a Props Master

(originally from The Young Woman’s Journal, 1921)

The Property Man

“Props”— provides, cares for, and places in proper position on the stage all furniture, draperies, lugs, carpets, lamps, telephone, letters, documents, etc. — in fact, all articles needed in the play except the personal properties of the actor. Things only used by a single actor — such as a fan, a cane, an eyeglass, a parasol, a handkerchief, a letter, if it remains with the one person and not given to another or is not left on the stage —  these are personal “props.” A small table should be provided on either side of the stage for offstage “props,” such articles as are needed to be carried on stage, or for properties brought off stage. The property man should see that actors do not carry such “props” to their dressing rooms, but that they are left on the table provided. Stage drinks — which are made of grape juice, ginger-ale, or root beer, according to the color needed, are cared for and bought by “props” on order of the director countersigned by the business manager.

The property man should take an artistic pride in his stage picture and spend a good deal of time to secure, by renting or borrowing or making, the exact style of furniture and things needed for the play. A period play with modern furniture which one sees in stock performance is ludicrous. Charlie Millard, the veteran property man of the Salt Lake Theatre made all his properties and furnished the actors in Brigham Young’s time with even personal “props.” The stage manager furnishes “props” with a property plot containing a list of properties needed for each scene in the play.

The Young Woman’s Journal, vol 32, pp. 561-2, 1921

Making a Breakable Glass

I’m props mastering a show called “Slave Shack”, at the Algonquin Theatre in the Gramercy Park area. One of the scenes calls for the actress to fling a scotch glass against the wall, where it breaks.

I decided to buy a number of thin glasses and spray them with Plasti-Dip. It’s a rubber coating which sprays on, and it comes in a variety of colors, including clear.

A glass smashed after sprayed with Plasti-Dip
A glass smashed after sprayed with Plasti-Dip

The rubber coating keeps the pieces of the glass together when it is smashed. If any pieces do break loose, they are not as sharp. I made a video to illustrate the process a lot more succinctly:

The obvious disadvantage of this method is that the glass ends up looking frosted. Also, you cannot use this method when you are breaking a bottle or glass over someone’s head. You can use it to coat glasses and bottles which are being thrown or dropped, but you should not have shards of glass, even coated in rubber, flying around an actor’s eyes and mouth.

The advantage? I bought three dozen (36) glasses for about $50 at a restaurant supply store. The Plasti-Dip is around $7-8 a bottle, and I only needed two bottles for this.

Smash Plastic, your other alternative, gives you a clear product, but it costs around $200 a gallon. You also need to make a mold (and buy molding supplies) and spend the time casting all of your glasses.

Sugar glass is great for films, but it degrades too quickly for theatre. Unless you want to be cooking up a fresh batch every night before the show for the next 2 weeks, or however long your show runs, it’s not a very viable alternative.

Glass dismissed!

Friday Link-topia

It’s been a busy week, and it’s going to be a busy month. Here’s another quick list of links I wanted to share, until I can find time to write something for reals.

  • Jesse Gaffney, a freelance props master in Chicago, has a new blog. Theatre Projects details the process behind some of his more challenging props projects. I’ve also added a link to the blogroll column on the side.
  • Art of Manliness has a wonderfully illustrated article on the various types of hammers and how to use them.  And if you’ve never been to the Art of Manliness before, take some time to look around; there’s a large archive of articles and forums to explore.
  • Popular Woodworking magazine has posted 3D models of some of the projects featured in their magazine. I don’t know if any of you props people ever use 3D to help you build, but if so, this is a great repository of early American furniture and workbenches.
  • Finally, if you have time, watch The Story of Stuff. It’s a 20 minute film showing how products go from raw materials to the store. It examines the social, environmental, and political aspects of production and consumption, but it’s also interesting for props people who are interested in objects and where they come from.

Making and finding props for theatre, film, and hobbies