A Day in the Life of a Freelance Prop Master- April 8, 2014

It occurred to me yesterday, that while I regularly post about individual projects, I don't regularly post about how I do my work on a daily basis. So yesterday I decided to keep track of everything I did (on a particularly busy, interesting day).

9:00 am- I am working on a big fake food project for my next show, Five Lesbians Eating a Quiche, for which I need 60-80 fake quiches. Since they need to bake, take time to bake, and take up room in the oven, I am trying to do a few every morning. I mixed up some salt dough for the crusts, preheated to oven to 400 degrees, pressed the dough into the pie pans, put them in the oven, and then turned off the oven, closed the door and left them. 

9:30 am- with the quiches all set, I got on my computer to respond to emails, enter in receipts from the past days, put some meetings onto my calendar etc. 

10:00 am- Still on my computer at home, I switched to craigslist to do an initial search for some furniture pieces for Five Lesbians.

 11:00 am- Ten minutes after getting out the door, I stopped by the Jewel (grocery store). I picked up more salt and flour for salt-dough crusts, some eggs for another project (more on that later), and a muffin and some milk for my breakfast (No worries Mom, I pulled over to take this pic).

 11:30 am- I arrived at Michaels. I picked up wax and Model Magic for the quiches, and some egg decor items for the same show. 

 12:00 pm- I went to the Greenhouse Theatre. The building houses four theatres, which are rented out by different companies. I happen to be working on two shows, for different theatre companies, that are both in the Greenhouse right now.
 First, I went upstairs to finish the last note I have on Cicada with Route 66 Theatre Company. There is a scene in the show where a character has been ironing. We needed 10 starched, ironed white collared shirts. The shirts were provided by costumes, because she was being helpful, but starching and ironing them was my job. I did 6 of the shirts the day before, but had to leave to get to another appointment before finishing, so I was back to finish the last 4.

 1:00 pm- After finishing the shirts, and discovering a new respect for wardrobe people, I went downstairs to take care of a last note for Our Class. The show was open, but I had gotten a note from the ASM that the leather on this reinforced suitcase was starting to give. There is a simple wood frame installed inside the suitcase to make it sit-able. I added a few screws to attach the leather case to the wood frame, so it stopped pulling away in strange ways when the case was lifted.

 1:45 pm- After leaving the Greenhouse I headed north toward my 3pm American Dead meeting in Evanston. On the way I stopped into the Good Deal Garage. I wanted to have a few more rehearsal props to drop off at my 5 Lesbians meeting tonight, and knew that they would have the frames I needed for a decent price. I paid, and was out the door in 15 minutes.

 2:00 pm- As I continued up to the Northwestern campus in Evanston I kept an eye out for somewhere to stop for lunch. Hoosier Mama Pie shop was on the way, and I had heard good things about it. I stopped for a rootbeer and a slice of pork-apple-sage savory pie.

 2:50 pm- I arrived a bit early for my American Dead meeting, but found the set designer and director already there. We discussed the layout of the space a bit, and then talked through the rest of the show with the master electrician, production manager and costume designer once they arrived.

4:30 pm- After leaving the meeting, I headed home (and this is when I stopped remembering to take pics...sorry). I stopped by a Salvation Army that was on my route. I was able to find a few more pie plates, and I also picked up an old sauce pan.

5:00 pm- I unloaded some of the days purchases from my car, quickly melted some wax and went to work on quiches. I wanted to have some samples of options ready for the my 6 pm meeting. I was able to pour a yellow wax filling into 2 quiche dishes, and to form the model magic into 4 crusts. As soon as the wax was set, I packed up what I could and was out the door.

6:00 pm- Luckily, the 5 Lesbians meetings take place only 5 minutes from my house. The one hour meeting ended up being mostly about set dressing, props and special effects, so while I felt bad about taking up other people's time, I got lots of important answers to my questions.

7:15 pm- From the meeting I headed back down to the Greenhouse for final dress rehearsal of Cicada. On the way, I stopped by the same Jewel to get more starch for the shirts. I had just enough of the starch I purchased previously to do all ten shirts, but wanted to make sure the ASM had some to touch up the shirts if he needed to during the run. I also picked up a plate of to-go sushi for dinner (it wasn't very good).

7:30 pm- I arrived at final dress a bit late, and snuck in quietly to take a seat in the dark. I took a few notes during the show, but mostly everything was in good shape.

8:30 pm- After the run ended, there was a photo call with the cast onstage, and the production team talked through tech notes, and then we were done.

10:00 pm- I arrived back at home after a long day. I still had those eggs sitting out on the counter though and Warwick, my husband, was showering and shaving. So while I waited for him I decided to get one more note done.
In Pinkolandia, about to open at 16th Street Theatre, I needed 3 hollowed out eggs nightly. I poked holes in them with the end of my beater and then blew out the insides. I did about a dozen eggs, and then was done for the night.

When should contracts be renegotiated

So this is more of a question than a statement, but I am starting to wonder when I should consider changes to the script and budget as motivations to insist on contract renegotiation.

Two recent conversations led me to this post.

The first was a conversation with a production manager who told me that one of her newest lessons came from a Tech Director (TD). He told her that if the budget of a show is increased, he always insists on an increase in pay. He logic was this; When he signs onto a project, he is agreeing on a certain amount of pay for a certain amount of work, namely as much scenery as can be built with the budget designated. Production managers and producers often decide, if a set estimate comes in over budget, to redistribute money, and increase the set budget in order to get the set desired. Unfortunately, this TD contends, that means more work for the TD, as more money means more scenery. This TD insists on renegotiating his contract if the budget has changed, because this means he is being asked to build more for the same pay.
This is something, in props, that I would never have considered. Often in my work, the more money I have, the easier my job becomes, because I can spend less time looking for the absolute best price possible.
The contract renegotiation that this TD spoke of seems very do-able, since in most cases the budget is listed in the contract. It is not hard to explain that a changed budget, changes the written terms of the contract. Having this in mind has convinced me to make sure all future contracts explicitly state my budget.

The second conversation I had is a bit trickier and also a more common problem.
A costume designer I regularly work with told me that she was frustrated with a current project. After she had signed her contract, the script was edited. In the new draft there was a huge prosthetic costume/makeup effect that had not been included in the first draft she had been given. She had taken a low paying show with the understanding that it was also an easy show. Now it wasn't an easy show. She felt bitter, stuck and taken advantage of. The conversation made me wonder if maybe I should think about asking for a clause in my contract that states that the pay and budget are based on the draft of the script that I had been given to review. I want the ability to reopen conversations about budget and fee if changes in future drafts significantly alter my workload.

These are just thoughts right now, but I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences. Do you have specific clauses you ask for in contracts? Have you even had to alter a contract based on changes to the script or to the design?

To All The Small Theatre Companies

I had a wonderful meeting with a woman the other morning. She is planning to produce her first storefront show here in Chicago, with the hopes of continuing to produce with the same group as a new theatre company. We talked a bit about resources here in Chicago, the way tech tends to be scheduled, things that are typically written into designer contracts, and payment schedules.
She also asked me a very interesting question- What makes me want to work with a company that can't pay me what I'm worth? What can a small company offer to me as an artist, besides money, to make me want to work with them.
I gave her a long list, and I figured, why not share it with anyone else who could use it.
In no particular order:

• Be up front with me from the first email. "We don't have a lot of money" is what I usually hear, which is honest, but if I don't know exact dollar amounts, it is impossible to have a productive conversation. This is partially because I need to look at my personal budget and see if I can afford to do this show, but more because I need to know if it is possible to do the show, at the level of quality I hold myself to, for the amount in the budget. 
• On a similar point, it is really helpful to have a conversation with the director about what is possible and what is not possible for me to do on this show with this budget. If the director and I start out on the same page, the budget can be any size, but if the director has aspirations bigger than her budget, it doesn't matter what size the budget is, we will both end up unhappy with the end product. 
• Treat the things I provide you with respect. I will not get frustrated if something breaks, especially in rehearsal when you are trying new ideas, that is part of the process. I will get frustrated if pieces are lost, or not stored safely, or if I give you specific instructions for the use or care of something and those instructions are ignored. 
• Get me involved in the production process as soon as possible. I love working on shows where production meetings start months before the first rehearsal, even if we only have one or two. I love to be in a room full of artists talking about the meaning of the play, what we would like to communicate to the audience, what sort of language we all want to work with in terms of color, and shape and texture that could apply to all design elements? I love conversations about why we are doing this show in this time and this place, who our audience is, how we want them to interact with the characters etc. Productions that start this way always seem to lead to more collaborative production teams, which helps produce work that we can all take pride in. 
• Continue that type of artistic collaboration throughout. I distinctly remember sitting in a production meeting after a first preview; the lighting designer mentioned that he had been distracted during the performance by the squeaking stool in the stage manager's booth behind him, he figured that she may not have been aware that the sound was carrying. The ASM indignantly turned to the room and asked "Did the lighting designer just give stage management a note?" The room went silent, and after that no designer felt very comfortable giving a suggestion or even asking a question to another department, and an atmosphere like that can only hurt a show. An open conversation between all departments about what is working and what isn't from sound cues to script choices allows everyone in the room to take advantage of the collective knowledge of so many theatre practitioners  Collaborative environments with open conversations make me feel like I am growing as an artist, and that makes me want to come back to work with you. 
• Feed me. I know it's little and I know it's silly, but something to eat that I don't have to think about goes a long way to making tech more pleasant and making me feel appreciated.  Also if I am running around like that, I often forget to eat, and I get pretty cranky before I realize I'm probably just hungry, this is not a time when I am doing my best work. 
• Do something about parking if possible. If you can make an arrangement with a local lot, or reimburse me for some of my meter receipts, or even have an ASM ready to run out and grab something from me when I pull up so that I don't have to circle for an hour to find a space close enough that I can carry all the everything from my car, that would be awesome. While many theatres in town are easily accessible by public transportation, that doesn't help me when I have a car full of props (costume designers have this issue too, help them out if you can).
• I worked with a theatre that did a talkback with each person involved after each show. I met two company members (who had not been directly involved in this production) for coffee and talked for an hour about what went well, what didn't, what I would do differently if I could do it again, and then about what my career goals and aspirations were in general. It was awesome. It made me feel appreciated, respected, and I got some great feedback and career advice.  
• Get me keys to the space, if you can (if you are renting I know this is much less doable). If I can drop off big pieces at any time of day regardless of who else is around and available it makes my job so much easier. It is hard to keep shopping for furniture if there is a dining table taking up the entire bed of my pickup truck.  
• Pay attention from the beginning to where the trouble spots are going to be. One of my favorite  theatre companies does this particularly well. Time, labor, and budget resources are directed to the department who will need them most. I know if I am doing a big props show with them I will have a bigger budget, a bigger fee, a few more one-on-one meetings with the director and/or the set designer and I'll have the production manager offering to help me track down big pieces. I see the same support being thrown behind other designers when it is a heavy costume or lights show. If I know I will be taken care of when I need help, I will keep coming back regardless of whether the support was directed to my department this time. 
• Do interesting shows with a clear mission. The more targeted you are about what you do and what makes you different from everyone else, the more intriguing you are. The more passionate you are about WHY you choose to do what you do, the more likely I will becoming interested and involved in your mission and invested in your success. The rule of thumb I tell people is, that I should be able to give you ten amazing plays that you would love to see, and you should be able to eliminate seven of them immediately because they aren't a good fit for your company. If you can't do that, you need a more focused vision. 
• Prop Freeze! This is my favorite new thing. The idea is that we set a date during the rehearsal process when the director is supposed to stop adding new props (with a couple of companies this has been first tech). After the freeze date the director can still ask for new things and for changes, and I will do them to the best of my ability, but I also have the ability to tell them without any guilt that there is no longer enough time or money to make that change. With some directors, this would hardly ever come up, but with others, it's really good to know I have a safety net in case they make a last minute outlandish request. 
• Get me help. I have lots of ways I can use untrained labor. There is always a repetitive project that could use another set of hands, and I love to teach. Even one or two hours on one day can be awesome and make me feel supported.
• Understand that I will likely leave when I'm done. Especially on smaller shows, if I have completed all of my notes and haven't been getting notes from other people, I'm probably going to stop coming to previews and I may not make it to opening. This is not because I don't like the show or hanging out with you, this is probably because I need to start working on my next show. If you are understanding and respectful of this, I am much more likely to want to work with you again. 
• Remember, I need to keep working with these vendors. A few years ago, I performed a props miracle and was able to get a high-end furniture store to loan me several expensive modern furniture pieces for a production. At the time I was driving a small car, but the company manager assured me that they had someone with a pickup who would help to return the pieces to the store after strike. I  learned about a year later that they never returned the pieces. I could never bring myself to show my face in that store again (it recently closed).
• Hire cool people. A lot of this will be contingent on doing some of these other things so that the cool people want to keep coming back. Nothing will make me sign on for a low paying show quicker than a list of people involved that I like working with. 

Take your Breaks

"Embrace your breaks" was a lesson that one of my professors tried very hard to teach me in college, and it is one I constantly try to learn, and one that I constantly struggle with.
In this business, he would explain to me, there will be times when things are insane, when you go weeks working 15 or 18 hour days, hardly see your friends or family, and don't even have time to clean your home, do laundry or cook a decent meal.
There will be other times when you have nothing to do, no pressing concerns and no upcoming deadlines. You have a choice in the down times. You can let them stress you out, spending all of your time trying to find projects, worrying over small details; or you can relax. Take the time off to do things you have been missing. Make time to hang out with friends, sleep in, cultivate your interests outside theatre, enjoy life.
I find myself feeling guilty because I know other people are working. My boyfriend leaves for work at 6:45 every morning. When I am in one of my busy periods I tend to leave with him, or soon after. Today I slept in until 8:15 and I was feeling horribly guilty about it. I should have been doing something with that time, right?
The truth is no. From the beginning of September through the third week of November I worked my butt off. I opened 8 shows in 10 weeks, hardly saw my friends and family, ate most of my meals on the run and worked until 10pm most nights. Sleeping in is exactly what I should have been doing. And if I slept until noon that still would be okay (though I don't think my body would let me do it). This business asks a lot from you and takes a lot out of you during the crunch times. If you don't embrace the down times you will burn out.
I worked with someone in the summer of 2006 who predicted my burn-out. "There's no way you keep going like this," he told me, "you are going to burn-out hardcore. I give you five years tops." There have been times I have worried he was right. There have been times when I kept going just to prove him wrong (which I admit is silly, I doubt he even remembers the conversation), and there are times like this morning when I know he was right. Not that I am planning on quitting, but times when I realize it's not that I can't keep going and have a long and successful life in the theatre; it's that I can't keep going like this. I have to take my downtime. Find ways to relax. Spend time with my family and friends. Embrace the things that are important to me outside of work. Sleep in if I feel like it. The crunch times will come again soon enough.

A Testimony I Had to Share

The writer of another fantastic props blog (Meredith Ries at Malaprops) is taking a break from professional work to go back to school. Before leaving the world of freelance she has written a fantastic call to arms for props masters. 

For me the essay served as a reminder of how unique my job is, and how hard it is (if you want a great rundown of what it is I do you should read it). The job is often thankless and there are no easy shows. She urges prop masters to recognize how valuable we are and to demand a fair wage. It's a reminder I need sometimes, especially after a recent conversation I had about a prospective job.


I was contacted by a friend about propping a show in August. I have worked with the company once before and found that they often have unrealistic expectations for their budget. I told the production manager that I was interested, but I would like to have a conversation with the director before signing a contract, to make sure that we were on the same page. I was proud of myself for standing up for myself and thinking before jumping into a project. Later, I found out that the director had gone around the production manager and recruited an actor to do the job because this actor would agree to do the job for 1/5th the pay. 


I was offended that someone I worked with had such a low opinion of my work that he believed anyone could do it. But I realize that I don't need to lower myself to the situation. In the end this company will likely get exactly what they pay for from an inexperienced person who doesn't have the skills and sources I do. If I were to take the job for less pay, this company would start expecting me to do good work for less pay. Instead, I'll find other work to do in August and trust that eventually this company will be burned by recruiting people who don't know what they are doing. When that happens they will come back to me and I will be able to ask the fair wage that I deserve.