Tag Archives: history

Features

A Brief History of IATSE

Without labor nothing prospers.

– Sophocles

It is written in letters of fire that the day of injustice to the working men of our craft must soon draw to a close.

– Lee M. Hart, second president of the National Association of Theatrical Stage Employes, 1895

Happy Labor Day, everyone! I hope you are having a relaxing weekend, though more likely, you are taking this long weekend to work on this fall’s shows (like I am).  Regardless of how you feel about unions in general, or IATSE in particular, there is no doubt that the history of IATSE has shaped the history of working in theatre and in props in America.

Propmen and Clearers

On July 17, 1893, seventeen men in New York City met for the first convention of the National Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Property-men were part of the union. Before organizing, they made fifty cents a day, and were often made to work in other departments regardless of their skills. Continue reading A Brief History of IATSE →

Useful Sites

Midweeks Link Dreams

Just a reminder that today at 2pm (EST), I’ll be taking part in a live chat interview at TheatreFace. Come join in the fun if you want to ask me a question.

I also have a fun new project I’ve been working on, and I might be posting photographs of it as early as next week, so stay tuned. Until then, here’s a fresh roundup of links for you to explore.

  • You know that Smooth-On has a plethora of videos and tutorials on their website, right? Well now, they also have a Mold-makers Exchange, where you can buy or sell molds and casts, or advertise your mold-making services. It’s like a Classifieds for all things moldmaking (or a “Craigslist” as the youngsters (and I) say). It’s very sparse at the moment, which is why I’m getting the word out about it.
  • The Library of Congress has a YouTube. With nearly 600 videos from their archives, there is a wealth of historical material available for free viewing. Many of these videos are great for research on the early twentieth century and thereabouts.
  • Check out these delicious fake food miniatures.
  • Erich Friend runs a Theatre Safety blog. Though focused more on theatre planning and operations, some of the information (I’m looking at you, hidden fire extinguishers) is relevant to props shops.
  • And finally, Volpin Props has made an awesome M8 Avenger Assault Rifle out of scrap materials he had sitting around in his shop.
News

When Irish props are smiling

The Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Ireland, first premiered The Plough and the Stars back in 1926. They’ve been producing it fairly regularly since then, and some of the props have been along for the ride. “Ploughing history into every production” by Sara Keating in the Irish Times is a great article about the pedigree of some of these props.

The ghosts of long-dead actors sit in chairs that are still recycled between productions, while the shadow of other plays hover above an original Victorian pram that has been used at the Abbey since its very first years. Such objects accrue stories in the same way that cities or buildings or people do. They are a palimpsest of many different lives and different uses.

They carry legends that are usually lost as actors and artists pass on: nobody thinks to write them down.

In the article, Ms. Keating interviews archivist Mairéad Delaney, prop master Stephen Molloy and prop maker Eimear Murphy. They explore the histories of some of these objects, such as Uncle Peter’s Sword, the Tricolor, Mollser’s Coffin, Bessie Burgess’ Shawl, and Mrs. Gogan’s Pram. The aforementioned pram had indeed been used in every production since 1926, and is over a hundred years old by this point.

The Abbey also possesses the original prompt script for the play, filled with notes and scribblings of everyone including Seán O’Casey, the author. All of these objects are remarkable in their own right, but even more so because they survived the Abbey Theatre burning down in 1951 and being completely rebuilt.

Useful Sites

Midweek Link Roundup

Still recovering from my trip out west. Enjoy other people’s webpages for the day:

How-to

Pre-war special effects

1 Comment

In the 1940s, special-effects in the film industry were usually done by a division of the property department. A lot of the more common tricks were standardized. When an actor smashed a chair or other piece of furniture over another actor’s head, they made the chair out of balsa wood. In theatre, when we need a chair to break, we need it to break consistently night after night, so we usually don’t make an entire balsa wood chair. Instead, we take a chair which is already in pieces and reconnect the broken joints with thin dowels or a hidden piece of soft wood.

Film departments at the time made breakaway glass from confectioner’s sugar, which required specialized equipment. They were just beginning to develop specialized resins which could achieve the same effect. Of course, here we are seventy years later, and the resin we use for making breakaway glass is still fairly expensive and highly toxic to work with.

Blood was made with chocolate syrup and glycerine. Obviously the formula has changed with the popularization of color film. Even so, chocolate syrup is still used to add thickness and darkness to some blood formulas, and glycerine can be added for a bit of sheen.

Another gruesome effect seen a lot at this time was rigging a hollow spear on a wire. The wire was hooked to a piece of wood hidden under the victim’s shirt so when the spear was thrown, it slid along the wire and hit the wood. They even had a trick up their sleeve for disembowelment. A rubber knife was drawn across an artificial abdomen which was fitted with a zipper attached to an invisible string. When the string was drawn, the zipper was pulled, and out came the guts and black stuff.