Fun facts from the Props team working on "I Was a Rat!"

Our Props department does an amazing job, and a big part of that is their attention to detail. They do a lot of studying for each show to come up with the best design for the properties you will see. Prop Shop Manager Edie Whitsett routinely shares the interesting tidbits of information she comes up with while researching each production.

For example, in I Was a Rat! you'll get to meet the Philosopher Royal, and below are some of Edie's notes on how each facet of the character is reflected in the prop design.

The Philosopher Royal is a devotee of several branches of knowledge, study and weirdness. Among his interests are:

Phrenology - the science of knowing a person by his or her bumps and fissures on the head. NOTE the poster of a head on his wall.

Palmistry - the science of knowing a person (or predicting their future) by his or her lines and creases on the hand. Also using the shape of the hand and digits. NOTE the model hand on his table and poster on the wall.

Alchemy – the science of transmutation (changing) of common metals into gold. Also, the search for or creation of a "panacea," a remedy believed to cure all diseases and prolong life indefinitely. NOTE various bottles and equipment on his table.

Ancient Egypt - NOTE the "hand painted" papyrus and God's eye protection amulet.

Acupunture - a technique of inserting and manipulating fine filiform (threadlike) needles into specific points on the body to relieve pain, or for therapeutic purposes. In China, the practice of acupuncture can be traced as far back as the Stone Age, with the Bian shi, or sharpened stones. Stone acupuncture needles dating back to 3000 B.C. have been found by archeologists in Inner Mongolia. Recent examinations of Ötzi, a 5,000-year-old mummy found in the Alps, have identified over 50 tattoos on his body, some of which are located on acupuncture points. NOTE the posters under the table.

Also note, a tiny Muslim prayer rug is on his floor...it sometimes points towards Mecca.

Join us to see what other interesting characters, and their props, you will meet.

I Was a Rat! opens May 1st and runs through June 7th in SCT's Charlotte Martin Theatre.

Props are a good thing

Our excellent props department is led by Properties Shop Manager Edie Whitsett, who shared some interesting tidbits about the props from A Tale of Two Cities.

There are additional challenges when working on a play about a specific time period, in this case the years leading up to and first few months of the French Revolution (the start of is generally marked by the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789). You have to maintain a balance between historical accuracy, the desired visuals and the technical demands of the play (where some props have to be durable and others have to break apart for each performance).

As a result, we have the pieces that embrace historical accuracy:

- Quill pens were first used during the 500's BC. These are the quill feathers of birds sharpened to a point. Steel nib pens did not come until the early 1800's. The quill pens in "A Tale of Two Cities" are either turkey or pheasant quills.

And we have other pieces where the proper visual and feel are more important:

- The pistol is a Cogswell Pepperbox; it actually dates form the mid 1800's, but we really liked the look for Madame DeFarge. Ours is cast out of urethane foam so it won't break when it gets dropped.

Originally developed in London in the mid 1800's, this six-shot percussion pistol was not technically a revolver since the multiple barrels and receiver rotated together. This replica gun has a mechanically-revolving barrel with working action and wood grips. Though this replica pistol saw limited action in the Civil War, it was likely more commonly used in saloons of the American frontier underneath a poker table.

- The rifle is an American Civil War replica used in reenactments.

And we have the pieces that Properties must build to look like one thing, but fulfill a different purpose:

- The wine barrel that drops and breaks is made out of foam, glue, rope and wood.

- The pudding is carved and painted foam with sauce made from paint and glue - yum! A traditional English pudding is made of eggs, flour, butter (or suet - raw beef fat), dried fruit, brandy, syrup, spices and soda. It is steamed in a mold, tightly covered. Some folks baste it with more brandy or pour a hard sauce over it.

What strikes me most about this list and the other items that Edie shared, which covered items and topics ranging from secret societies’ use of coded messages woven into textiles to the invention of the envelope and the origin of 8 1/2” x 11” paper, is how much Edie and her staff gets to learn in the process of researching props.

And isn’t that often the best thing about theatre – we come to it with one expectation, to be entertained or enlightened, and find we learn more than we could have anticipated.

A Tale of Two Cities opens Friday March 20 and runs through April 12, 2009 in SCT's Charlotte Martin Theatre.

The details are the thing

"That willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith."
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

I've always been intrigued by the term "suspension of disbelief," and think it is particularly useful when thinking about theatre and stagecraft. As theatre artists, we aren't trying to get audiences to believe they are actually in Fantastica or Denmark or East High, yet at the same time profound disbelief would undermine the compact between audience and artist, and could rob the experience of emotional gravity.

What we try to achieve is the suspension of disbelief, that state in which the audience willingly abandons skepticism in order to participate in the story. Often, the key to achieving suspension of disbelief is in the details.

The bit of stagecraft below from our current production of Hamlet is a perfect example. Our adaptation was written by SCT Artistic Associate Rita Giomi for five actors, meaning that only Connor Toms as Hamlet handles a single role. As the other actors handle two or three roles each, none could be spared to act as the corpse of Ophelia in the play's second act. And so this responsibility fell to our props department.

It would have been reasonable to expect a glorified scarecrow, clothes filled with stuffing and wrapped in a shroud. But such a prop wouldn't have the heft, drape or exact shape of an actual corpse, so the talented folks in props built this skeleton to fill out the body shape.







Note in particular the fully articulated spine, which was key to getting our poor, dead Ophelia to sag realistically in her brother's arms. And the exercise of creating the entire skeleton ensured she would have the proper proportions.

Wrapped in her death shroud, this is how the final Ophelia looked:





In this last photo, the Ophelia corpse is shown with Marne Cohen Vance, who filled in as Prop Shop Manager over the winter holidays.

We're quite fond of our fake Ophelia here, and have even christened her with a nickname. One of the above photos contains a huge clue as to what that nickname is - think you can figure it out? The first person to post the correct nickname in the comments section will receive a voucher for a free ticket to Hamlet.