Props

The Costume Prop Department designs and makes costume items and technical elements of costume, such as jewellery, armour or millinery. Working with the designer's concept for the costumes, the costume propmakers explore the use of different materials to create the desired effects.

Often it is more appropriate to purchase props rather than make them; a variety of factors go into deciding why that might be the case.

Productions often require severed heads or limbs. An alginate cast will often be made by of the actor's own head or limb, which will serve as the basis for further work. Soft props made in the Props Department range from bedding and curtains to dummies and their clothes!

From large to small items of furniture, the Props Department is responsible for sourcing all different kinds of pieces; if there's enough budget and nothing they can borrow or adapt, they very often make them.

The Props Department is a rather extraordinary place given the skill set prop makers are required to have; it ranges from carpentry to sculpture. While each prop maker has a particular area of interest, all of them are expected to be adaptable.

Sometimes a prop become so large or is replicated so many times that it is deemed a piece of scenery.

Graphical props include all kinds of items with designs on them, from newspapers and cigarette packets, to replicas of the Munich Peace Agreement.

When food appears on stage, there is often a mix of real food and fake food; the real food might be eaten by one of the actors, while the fake food prevents a build-up of rotting left-overs backstage!