Props placement at The Park Theatre

I’m Aino, a second year technical theatre student, specialising in props and stage management. This term I’ve been on placement as a props supervisor at the Park theatre for After Miss Julie directed by Dadiow Lin.

I was very keen on a placement opportunity like this as it combines both sides of props and stage management. I also got to work with, and be a part of a professional team which was invaluable work experience for someone like me- just starting out. The play had a lot of sourcing involved because it’s a period piece and it had an exciting prop make: a yellow songbird that would have its head cut off on stage, with blood and all.

A big thing with a make like this is that it has to be made realistic but durable so it lasts through the whole run of the play. It would also interact with blood and later be put in water. Feathers take colour really easily and this would ultimately turn the yellow warbler into a pink warbler in no time if proper prep-work wasn’t done in the early stages.

In addition I had make it actually bleed and make the action of cutting the head off look realistic. I did this by placing a big plastic capsule inside the body of the bird that acted as a connector between the head and the body. This way the blood would get released when the actor cut through the neck and the head would fall off. There would also have to be enough blood in the bird for one of the actors to smear some of it on their scene partners face and still enough blood inside the bird for it to later dye water in a flower vase red.

I made half of the bird out of feathers that I glazed with matt glaze to make it waterproof, and used yellow fur on the rest of it. The body was made of hard foam so it would keep the capsule steady inside the bird. I also ended up making a bunch of extra heads for the bird and an extra body just in case the bird got worn down or discoloured in the process.

It was a great experience to feel like a proper part of professional creative team. I gave me a realistic idea of how it would feel to work like this in the future and it gave me many new colleagues that I already know I work well with. It really encouraged me to keep working toward getting better and taking on challenges and opportunities when they present themselves. I’m very proud of what I was able to accomplish and how I've grown from the experience.