Saint Mary’s College Props Guest Artist
A look into my time as a guest artist at Saint Mary's in their theatre department, where I in addition to designing for their shows also instruct students on the design process for their projects! Scroll through to see various lessons and designs done collaboratively with students!Educational Approach: Legally Blonde
This slideshow will detail some of the lessons and work done alongside students at Saint Mary's College for their production of Legally Blonde, this show had a larger budget and as a result most props were either purchased or built!
The first step is of course reading the script, then again looking for possible props, we then all worked together to create a props list based both on things mentioned in script, and also what was requested by the director!
Lesson 1: Altering existing stock! SMC had dozens of these electric tower candles in stock, with approval by staff we decided to alter these to fit our means for the Delta Nu ritual scenes! Step one, sand down to make them more receptive to paint!
Step two was painting them, with multiple coats to ensure the color was fully saturated!
The final step after all paint was dry was initially sealing the paint on the candles with modge podge! While acrylic paint is cheap and readily available, it requires additional sealing to last long term!
The true final step came when we received a note from the director that they seemed too plain! The team went to the drawing board and ultimately we came up with this tied ribbon which did the trick! Ribbons were tied then secured with hot glue!
Lesson 2: Making something that imitates life from scratch! In this case, we needed to make a cake shaped like a bone! We ultimately decided to use Styrofoam balls to make the rounded bone edges, and Crayola model magic clay to cover and make shape as both were already in the shop! We also felt it would best mimic the texture of fondant!
Step one was covering the spheres in the modeling clay, and making the shape of the bone as close as we could!
A look at the underside of the bone following step 2, giving the modeling clay time to dry and set!
Step three was sanding the piece to fit the desired shape and look as closely as possible!
Here is the finished piece after all sanding, with the intention being to match the look of a small fondant cake!
Step 4 was attaching the piece to a serving tray, which we did using small dabs of hot glue!
Lesson 3: Designing something for ease of actors! The script makes mention of a pile of milkyway wrappers, which the director wanted the actors to be able to show the audience! This created a unique challenge with all of these loose wrappers being difficult to clean up! But we came up with a solution!
The materials used were more styrofoam spheres, toothpicks, hot glue, and several milkway wrappers generously consumed by the cast! The 2 spheres were first attached to each other to allow for a based to glue the wrappers to, and to add dimension and the implication there were even more wrappers!
Lesson 4: Color matching and props not seen up close! For this project first made a few wine glasses filled with resin (seen in Design), however it was not practical to have all party goers carry these, nor was it necessary!
The wrappers were then hot glued both to the base, and to each other to make a large pile of them! This then allowed for the actors to pick up and move the whole pile with ease, without the issue of picking them up after or having to keep track of loose wrappers!
We ultimately decided that the ensemble party goers never got close enough to the audience to require this, and ultimately decided to use plastic glasses with acrylic paint inside!
This project was then focused on color matching the acrylic paint to the existing wine glass as best as possible!
This piece was designed entirely by a SMC student! She drafted the initial card, gave justification as to why it would be hand made, presented her designs to the director, and crafted this finished product all on her own!
Educational Approach: Lost in a Book
(Original Staged Opera Project)
Lost in a Book was a unique project wherein students taking an opera performance course worked together to create an original script that incorporated songs from operas based on books!
As this was for a class the budget was minimal, in addition to this the director wanted the aesthetic to be that of a 70s childhood bedroom that was preserved in that state, as a result most purchases would not fit that choice or be cost effective! For this project the only purchases made were a specific bedframe, and a few books, all other pieces were pulled from stock, loaned, or crafted!
Lesson 1: Pulling for an aesthetic! As this show had a very limited budget, the first step after building our props list again was pulling everything we had that fit the needs of the list as well as the directors desires! In doing so we also pulled set decoration that would fit the plan, as we were also designing the basic set!
Here is another round of things pulled, as well as testing different beddings to see what best fit the vibe we were going for! The crochet caterpillar was done by another artist as a favor incurring no cost! We also spent some time calling other theatres and colleges to see if they had anything in stock that may fit our needs as well!
Here is a wider shot of the set showcasing most of what we pulled and borrowed to best fit the established aesthetic!
Lesson 2: Purchasing only what's necessary! For the directors vision there were very specific covers from her childhood she had in mind for the piece! As such, when not able to find copies from anyone to borrow that fit that vision, we bought those copies! As such was the case for this copy of Goodnight Moon!
The same went for this copy of Little Women, after all of the copies available had too modern of covers for the desired look!
In this case the director very specifically wanted a pop-up book of Cinderella, and we of course had to purchase that unique piece!
Here is another photo showcasing the set design as well as more placement of set dressing!
A close up look at some of the set dressing over the fireplace!
Lesson 3: Making something that doesn't exist, and trying something new! For the Carmen section of the show, there was no existing book with a distinct interesting cover that we could find online! as a result we needed to create one! However, none of us had used photoshop much!
We were able to find only this poster for another production of the Carmen opera that was even close to the vision the director had for the book cover! We used this as the base, and created the rest in photo shop!
This was the finished product! The proportions were designed to fit that of a large children's story book which we would wrap around it after printing!
One final look at the Carmen section and our set design!