Oak Park Festival Interview

One of the board members at Oak Park Festival Theatre sent me an email the other day asking me if I could answer some questions so that she could write a bit about me for their company newsletter.
Here's the article she wrote with my answers-
http://oakparkfestival.com/she-gets-serious-props/

Period Pens

I have often run up against period pens as a problem. 

It is very difficult to come across anything cheap and plentiful at the stores that doesn't look like these decidedly modern pens. In the past I have often resorted to spending far more money that I would like on nicer pens that were more timeless, or trying to validate the choice of a pencil in all situations.  

 This summer I had an epiphany and discovered a cheap simple solution. 

A coat of silver or gold spray paint on an ugly plastic pen 

results in a piece that looks classy and timeless from any distance. And saves me a ton of money and time in the future.

Plastic Champagne Flutes

In Hamlet at Notre Dame Shakespeare this past summer we needed a large number of champagne flutes for a party scene. I didn't have much money to spend on the prop, and had previously decided with the director that we would do our best to avoid putting any glass onstage in this show (there was so much stage combat that anything glass was guaranteed to break). We found a selection of plastic flutes that fit our look at Party City, quickly discovered that the cheap plastic was far too light. When the actors were holding the flutes in their hands we had no problems, but sitting on a table or on a waiter's tray it only took a slight breeze to send them all tumbling. 

To solve the problem of glassing falling (and then breaking), we needed to weight the bases of each glass. I had my assistant fill the small cavity at the bottom of each glass with silicone caulk. We pressed a large heavy washer into the caulk and then filled the base the rest of the way. We smoothed out the caulk so that the glass would sit flat on a surface and let it dry. 

You can see here that the inner layer of caulk stayed cloudy long after the outer layer had dried and become transparent. Fortunately this wasn't a problem for my purposes. 

 We carefully taped over the bottom bit of the bell of the glass, and then spray painted the stem silver. 

 Then repeated several dozen times

 Once the tape was removed we had a set of silver stemmed champagne flutes that were safely plastic, light to carry on a large tray, nicely weighted to not tip over, and less than $1 each. 

Lessons I Forget I Know

Right now I am working on a production of Hamlet at Notre Dame's Summer Shakespeare Festival. I have an amazing assistant who is very eager to learn, and in working with her, and explaining my work to her, I've remembered some tips and tricks that I use on a regular basis and sometimes forget I know.

First, when antique and thrift shopping I take pictures, lots of them. It is obvious to take pictures of the things I think might be useful,

 but I also take a picture of the price tag on the item,

and, when I need to establish the scale of an item, I also take a picture that includes my purse. I use the purse because it is a neutral item that I am guaranteed to have with me in a production meeting when we are discussing options.

Another trick I have learned to use is to label pictures and options that I send to directors and designers. It could be just numbers or letters, but it helps clarify email and phone conversations when you can't be in the same room with the rest of the team members. 

This trick was actually reinforced when I neglected to use it recently. I sent a document of photos to the director and designer. There were six pictures on each page, two images of furniture piece. The director replied to the email that he loved the second table on the page, we had a few more exchanges about the size of the piece he had chosen and how it might function, and I made plans to purchase the piece when I returned to Chicago the next day. 

Because there had been a lot of back and forth about several pieces, many of which would be serving multiple purposes in the show, I sent one final document with photos of all the pieces I planned to purchase with captions indicating which scenes we would be using them for. It was only upon receiving that final email that the director and I realized we had been speaking of different pieces. He did not realize that the first two photos on the page were of the same desk. His note said he liked the second table on the page, but he was actually referring to the second photo of the first table. We were able to clarify the discussion and I was able to purchase the correct piece of furniture. 

The experience served as a reminder to me that there are reasons I take the time and energy to do a little bit extra. When I make an assumption that everyone is on the same page, I run the risk of making a very expensive mistake (I would have paid $250 for an non-returnable desk had I not realized the confusion).