Tag Archives: opera

Useful Sites

Special Saturday Prop Links

Behind the scenes: designing the props for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – Pierre Bohanna talks about some of the fantastic props he was tasked to create for JK Rowling’s latest foray into the Harry Potter universe. He also details some of the biggest challenges; surprisingly, recreating 1926 New York was more difficult than finding fantastic beasts.

Props: Fur, Foam & Focus – Zoë Morsette talks with Stage Directions magazine about her career and some of the favorite props she built. She discusses some great specifics about materials, techniques, and tools used on some recognizable props. She also gives helpful advice for the early career prop professional.

Floating Worlds: The Santa Fe Opera Scene Shop – This article brings us some beautiful photographs and in-depth interviews with Scott Schreck and Mike Ortiz, the technical director and associate technical director of the Santa Fe Opera. Find out how they build scenery for operas that travel all over the world.

Our Favorite Movie Props at Comic-Con 2018! – The Prop Store is getting ready for a big auction of rare and iconic movie props. They recently brought a bunch of them to San Diego Comic Con. This fifteen-minute video looks at their collection during this brief opportunity to see all these famous props in one location.

Faberge Caravan – The Prop Solve is back after a brief hiatus, but she returns with a fantastic post showing a Faberge egg she made in the style of a 1970s caravan trailer. There are lots of great tips and photos showing how she modeled tiny benches and appliances to fit the curves of an egg-shaped vehicle.

Reprints

Behind the Scenes of Aida, 1880

I came across these illustrations giving a backstage look at the opera Aïda. It is a French production from 1880. Even though it is over 135 years ago, some things still look the same.

The Egyptian Warriors at rest
The Egyptian Warriors at rest.
Orchestra reinforcement.
Orchestra reinforcement.
The final duet.
The final duet.
The big parade.
The big parade.

Originally from: Aïda, vue des coulisses de l’Opéra. (L’illustration, v.76, Oct. 30, 1880, p. 283-286; illus. on p. 292.)

Interviews

Interview with Tina Stevenson

The following is one of several interviews conducted by students of Ron DeMarco’s properties class at Emerson College.

Across the World in Props, with Tina Stevenson

by Jeremy Stein.

Tina Stevenson
Tina Stevenson

“Be flexible, smile even when you’re frustrated, if you don’t know the answer say so, learn something new everyday, never be afraid of a challenge, but never stretch yourself or department because of it.” Continue reading Interview with Tina Stevenson →

Interviews

Interview with Deb Morgan

1 Comment

The following is one of several interviews conducted by students of Ron DeMarco’s properties class at Emerson College.

Deb Morgan: One-Woman Prop Shop

by John Meredith

Deb Morgan
Deb Morgan

Deb Morgan is a freelancer who is the current Property Master at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. She has a strong background in music that started at a young age, when she started taking dance classes and participating in music recitals in grade school. Her interest in performance continued as she took up the flute and played it in both her school band and marching band as well. During the summers of her high school years, she was part of a musical program. That is what peaked her interest in theater. All of the students in the program not only sang and acted in the show, but built props and sets as well. She loved performing, but not so much the acting, and gained awareness of the design aspects of theater. Continue reading Interview with Deb Morgan →

Reprints

The San Francisco Grand Opera, 1899

The following article about the Grand Opera in San Francisco originally appeared in The Sunday Call in 1899:

To most people there is an indefinable sense of mystery in the simple phrase “behind the scenes.” Some imagine it to be a vague sort of place peopled with beings who live dual lives, the one either very wicked or much-abused, and the other the artistic and pretty-to-look-upon one of the footlights. To such the theatrical managers appear as abusive hobgoblins whose delight it is to torture and mistreat. That is about as far as such imaginations go; beautiful scenic effects, and the smooth and unbroken succession of harmonious arrangements are taken for granted and expected, with no thought of the vast amount of labor, care, capital, trouble and ingenuity required in the production of an evening’s entertainment for the throngs who come nightly to be amused from the other side of the footlights…

Property Department viewed from the south
Property Department viewed from the south

Yards and yards of canvas, bolts of calico, rolls and rolls of paper, kegs and pots of paint, and a succession of other paraphernalia poured in from all sides, and were pounced upon by the different departments and carried away, to be utilized and transformed into settings and scenery…

James S. Cannon, Property Master, designing for the Christmas spectacle, "Sinbad"
James S. Cannon, Property Master, designing for the Christmas spectacle, “Sinbad”

Mr. James Cannon, the inventive genius of the stage, and the master property man, went about inspecting his great thunder drum, the big wheel and its silk flap which is the source of the wintry wind which whistles out from behind the scenes and causes one to turn up one’s coat collar—the apparatus which so closely imitates the breaking of the waves against the crags, and the numberless other apparatus for adding to the realistic nature of the performance. From his modeling room on a level with the gallery, to his little electrical room below ground, Mr. Cannon was busy with his rounds. His was the task of casting plaster models of the stage properties to be used in the various scenes, and to keep everything going harmoniously.

Originally published as “In the Workshops Behind the Scenes”, The Sunday Call, San Francisco, December 24, 1899, pg 2. Photos by Alishy.