I just finished up tech this past weekend for Timon of Athens at the Public Theatre; it’s the first show at the Public where I’m officially the “prop master”, so let the crowd go wild. But Eric, you say, didn’t you say you had tech just the other week? Yes, but that was a different show. What, you don’t tech a show every other week? Don’t you care about theatre? Anyways, while I do have some new articles I’ve been working on, there are also some links I’ve been collecting that I’ve been dying to share. Also, Happy Valentines Day to my wonderful wife!

First, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my latest magazine article in this month’s Stage Directions magazine, called “From Agave to Zeus.” It’s about the head I made for The Bacchae in 2009; I’ve certainly written a lot about it on this blog, but the article covers the whole shebang in one compact story, and features some new photographs as well.

Here is a list of “Huntorials“; tutorials on sculpting, casting, armor-making, weapon-making and painting, focused on making replicas from the Predator canon. By that, I mean the movies with the monsters versus future US governors, not the remote-control drones.

On the “Definitive Costume and Propmaking Tutorials” page is a small selection of technique guides, like vacuumforming and weathering; useful, but far from definitive.

The Replica Prop Forum had an interesting and insightful thread discussing more general prop making methods. How do you work, what materials do you use, and why?

On the other side of the pond, The Association of British Theatre Technicians has a FAQ pertaining to props.

And finally, “How to Solve It,” a step-by-step guide on how to solve problems, easily pertainable to all those tricky prop conundrums (you want this to do what?).