Jobs

Finding a job in Props

I wanted to share some of the websites I use or have used to find jobs as a props artisan in theatre.

ArtSearch – ArtSearch has the most jobs listings for educational, regional, and non-profit theatres across the United States. You need a subscription to access it. If you attend school, they might have a subscription you can use. Otherwise, it’s well worth it to buy your own.

BackstageJobs – BackstageJobs has similar postings as ArtSearch, but also more commercial, temporary, and overhire gigs. They have sections for Chicago, LA, and NYC, but their job postings are from all over the country.

Playbill – Playbill’s listings can be more show-specific, meaning short-term employment for a single show, but they also list internships and full-time positions. It’s also fairly NYC-centric, but a small percentage of their listings are from elsewhere.

Craigslist – The helpfulness of using Craigslist to find work depends on where you live. While searching for prop jobs in Guam may be fairly fruitless, the New York City Craigslist is so active you can spend your entire year finding short-term gigs from it. Note that almost all the job listings are for immediate or near-immediate positions, and a large percentage are freelance or temporary work. Still, it can do a good job helping you pay the bills in between larger gigs, and you may even find other industries where your skills come in handy.

USITT – Their job listings can be annoyingly meager at times. For the most part, they advertise positions in educational theatre. More helpful is actually attending the annual USITT conference, which just ended this last weekend. They also have local chapters throughout the country, which may have more frequent events and networking opportunities.

SETC – The South Eastern Theatre Conference’s job listings are also focused primarily on positions in educational theatre and internships. Like USITT, their yearly conference, which has also passed for this year, is a great place to find jobs. They hold a job fair, which is a major recruiting ground for summer work in many theatres, large and small.

I’ve found work from most of these sites, as both a young beginner, and as a more experienced artisan. I should also mention that job listings are only a portion of the job search experience. I wouldn’t be surprised if over half of my jobs and gigs were from word-of-mouth, or through someone I know.

There are a number of more local sites as well. When I was living in Philadelphia, I checked the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia for job listings. Your town, city, or region may have something similar.

If anyone knows of any other sites for finding prop job listings, feel free to share.

Tools

Miniature Craftsmanship

I just started looking at The Internet Craftsmanship Museum. It’s a great museum featuring highly crafted miniatures of any number of objects. A large portion of the collection can be viewed online. I like the miniature gun section, although the aircraft are pretty cool, too.

1/3 scale Thompson machine gun by David Kucer
1/3 scale Thompson machine gun by David Kucer

If you want to do your own miniatures, or if you just have extremely limited space for a workshop like I do, you can find any number of tools from either Micro-Mark or Sherline. I’ve been looking at a number of machines from both of these places for awhile.

I’m often tempted to get one of those cheap mini machines, like a tabletop table saw, from any of those discount tool outlets. But then I read reviews for them and realize they’re just utter crap. The tools from Micro-Mark or Sherline are built like real tools, only smaller; they aren’t toys. Of course, this is reflected in the prices. Ah, well.

Tools

Online Laser Cutting

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The letters for this throne I built were laser-cut by another company and shipped to the opera.
The letters for this throne I built were laser-cut by another company and shipped to the opera.

A laser cutter will cut, score, or engrave a whole range of sheet goods, such as wood, paper, or plastic. Some places can even do metal.

Some props shops may be lucky to have them, or have access to them through another department. Others may have worked with local businesses for laser-cutting services. Luckily, with the internet, you can still take advantage of laser cutting if neither of these are available. There are a number of companies where you can send a CAD file or drawing, pick a material, and they will cut out your design and ship it to you.

Custom Laser Cutting is a great example of one of these companies. Their website clearly lists what materials they can and can’t cut and what is possible with laser cutting, as well as the drawbacks. With small orders, they have a turn around of 3-5 days plus shipping time; for extra money, you can get it faster, all the way up to same-day turn around and overnight shipping. They show examples of their work with prices. The black cat at the bottom of this post, which is 9″ by 11.5″, cost $41 which includes shipping. If you were to order the materials online, it would cost around $15 to have a 12″ by 12″ sheet shipped to you. If you have to pay for labor, or if you have a limited time line, this can quickly become the more economical option.

Big Blue Saw is another company set up to do fast laser cutting for small orders. Their website states they can have an item ready for shipping within 3 days. There is no information about prices, but you can request a quote.

This black cat was cut from 1/4 black acrylic
This black cat was cut from 1/4" black acrylic
Showcases

Seattle Children’s Theatre Props Shop

The Seattle Children’s Theatre blog has a good post up about the props for A Tale of Two Cities. Edie Whitsett, the properties shop manager, describes the amount of historical research they did for the show. More interesting is how they used the research. Sometimes they went with the most historically accurate objects, but other times, they adapted it to better suit the needs of the production. Edie puts it best in the article:

You have to maintain a balance between historical accuracy, the desired visuals and the technical demands of the play.

There is also an earlier post which has great process shots as they build a fake corpse for Ophelia.

Seattle Children's Theatre builds a fake corpse for Ophelia
Seattle Children's Theatre builds a fake corpse for Ophelia
Resources

Fonts and Logos

Will sent me two sites he uses for making paper props.

The first is Best Brands of the World. This has vector files of the logos for many of the most popular companies around the world. What’s a vector file? It’s a graphic you can resize without getting those jaggy edges. You usually work with them in a vector graphics program, like Adobe Illustrator, but you can still use them in a raster graphics program like Adobe Photoshop. When you open the file, it asks you what size you want to make it. I’ll probably be using this site this week, as I have to build a Starbucks sign.

The second is What the Font. Will says:

You can send a scan of any string of text (it has suggestions for size and length) and it will make a pretty good guess as to what font you’re looking for. This is really handy if you’re trying to duplicate something in a paper prop. They also have a forum that has logos and text that have already been worked out.

Maybe one day, Will can write a tutorial on the newspapers he had to make while I was working at Actors Theatre.

Making and finding props for theatre, film, and hobbies