When we last checked in with the intrepid prop managers, they THOUGHT they had everything they needed for the upcoming play, The Savannah Disputation at the Alexandria Little Theater, sorted out. That was before final rehearsals started with the “real” props…

Prop managing is a constant learning experience. At first, my friend Susan and I thought it would be just a matter of rounding up a very specific group of stuff as per the script specifications. Hey, guess what…things change until the director is satisfied and the actors feel comfortable with the things they have to handle.

Case in point, a table dressed for that time just after a dinner has ended, which needs to be set in a hurry, on the darkened stage, after the lights go down between scenes. We were asked to make it the remains of a LARGE dinner (in Savannah, so Southern Style) and really fill up the table. And put some convincing looking food scraps on plates for scraping. All the items were to be placed on a big board, covered with a table cloth, and brought out to place on the table. Voila, instant dinner remains.

Problem #1: The board would not fit through the stage opening it needed to go through (IE the closest one to the table). Problem #2: Even if it had fit, it would have taken two weight lifters to carry it with all the stuff on it. Problem #3: All that stuff (which was then brought out on trays and arranged as quickly as possible on the table) ended up actually obscuring the actors from the audience. There were a few other problems, but these were the major ones.

Solution, naturally: less stuff. But, then, during the rehearsal run with a highly pared down amount of stuff, it was decided that it was now too much less. So, the search for “just enough stuff” continued to evolve. Which it will, I have no doubt, until opening night. And by closing night, we will have it “just right.”

My personal prop obsession is the “banana pudding.” The first attempt at this concoction, which has to be eaten so must be, at least in theory, edible, included spray whipped cream; which turned out to melt into an unsightly puddle in the dish under the stage lights. Enter generic Cool Whip like substance, that age old standard which, I learned, could become part of a question on a standardized test, as follows: “Cool Whip is to Whipped Cream as Cheez Whiz is to [Cheese].”

Ah, the theater. Never a dull moment. But a lot of moments filled with some emotional lows and many (sugar) highs.