Technical Production for the Performing Arts Industry: Scenery & Props

The prop department at the National Theatre often have to make realistic documents, newspapers, or money: these are called graphical props. In this film the prop department demonstrates some examples of graphical props, and explains some of the techniques used to make them.

Working in the Prop Department at the National Theatre requires all kinds of skills. In this film they explain some of the key crafts they use, and show how a propmaker has to use their own initiative to realise a designer's ideas.

The Prop Department at the National Theatre often have to contribute to make parts of a production's set. In this film they explain the kind of scenic work they do, and demonstrate some of the shortcuts they use to make complicated scenery quickly.

A soft prop is anything that involves sewing or dyeing, from curtains to severed heads. In this film, the Props Department at the National Theatre explain the kind of soft props they make, demonstrate some of the techniques they use.

The prop department at the National Theatre makes and buys props for every production. In this film the department explain when it's appropriate to buy a prop, and when to make it.

The “magic” of theater is the result of rigorous planning, hard work, and the finely honed skills of artisans and designers. This program takes viewers inside the technical process of mounting a stage play. Focusing on a theater company’s major production departments—set, prop, costume, makeup, lighting, and sound—the video shows how the knowledge and labor of theater technicians comes to life. Information about model fabrication, painting techniques, flats and bracing, scene changes, hand props, furniture, statues and masks, period suits and dresses, light rigging, and mic placement makes this the ultimate hands-on authority for theater courses and workshops. (124 minutes)

A set designer explains the planning process prior to set design. He researches and photographs anything relevant to the artistic production. Viewers will see his preliminary sketches and the models set on the grand plan of the stage.

A set designer demonstrates the transition from black and white sketches to model painting, including the backcloth. The completed, painted scale model is a three-dimensional miniature of the final life-sized set.

A set designer demonstrates painting techniques on a gauze front cloth, including splatter-painting, or using a sea sponge with a template.

Viewers will observe the details of a completed set in a child's nursery (for "Peter Pan") and learn some tricks of the trade such as painting patterns on wood to create "tile," and vision holes designed as painted pictures.

Viewers observe how large pieces of a stage set can be moved during scene changes. Most properties are on industrial casters (or "trucks") to make movement easy.

Set properties are supported by brace and weight systems from behind. A set designer demonstrates how walls ("flats") are braced, how pictures are attached to walls, and how carpets are secured.

A touring company demonstrates the portability and adaptability of its stage set. Using wing nuts and bolts, the crew puts up a set in less than an hour.

Viewers of this segment visit a set designer's "Santa's workshop" to learn how small props such as books, candles, and cakes are made from polystyrene, cardboard, and muslin.

Viewers of this segment visit a set designer's "Santa's workshop" to learn how to construct large props such as a horse-drawn carriage and a cannon. Many props require electrical components.

A set designer shows the trick of making ice cream from mashed potatoes, and using dried bread for onstage loaves. Chemicals make colored water appear like whiskey or tea, and a tea bag transforms ordinary paper into parchment.

Viewers of this segment visit a set designer's workshop where he demonstrates the construction of statues and masks. Materials include plaster of Paris and silicon molds, liquid latex, and fiberglass, to name a few.