When was the last time you paid attention to the props in a theatrical production? It may seem like a tiny detail, but imagine Phantom of the Opera without the chandelier, or Miss Julie, which recently concluded its run at Court Theatre, without the kitchen table and bowl that anchors the opening scene.
While audiences may overlook the various objects on stage, theatrical and stage properties are an essential aspect of storytelling; they help make a story feel real. Props fall into three main categories: furniture, like chairs or tables used on stage; dressing, such as pictures on a wall or books on a shelf; and hand props, items that actors physically touch or use during a performance.
But props don’t magically appear on stage. Behind every prop are people who are responsible for finding, placing, maintaining, and often creating each one—people like Court Theatre’s head of props Lara Musard.
Musard supports the rehearsal process, which means that she carefully reads each script to determine the needs of a scene, creates prop lists, and then sources and places the objects ahead of their stage debut.
Musard, who grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago, has been in the business for nearly twenty years, but didn’t initially envision herself in the role. In her twenties, Musard was living in New Orleans and working as a stage manager at Southern Repertory Theatre when one day she was asked to handle props for a show. She accepted the challenge, but admitted that she hated it.
“My favorite part is the hunt. I love when there’s something weird or specific, and I have to find it. That’s my favorite part.”
Lara Musard
“I hated it because when you do props, you have to know where everything is and you have to know the people to ask for this stuff…be able to source and have connections,” Musard said. “I was brand new to the city. So I had no idea what I was doing. Then Katrina hit, and I moved back to Chicago. I didn’t want to do stage management again. I really loved the idea of having a niche position in the show where I could be creative, add my part, and then be done with it.”
Today, Musard has almost 100 shows under her belt, and estimates that she has amassed thousands of props over the years.
While touring the Court Theatre prop house, I could see what looked like thousands of objects of all shapes, colors, and sizes stacked on shelves, tucked in boxes, and placed in bins throughout each massive room. Every imaginable object was present: clocks, plants, dolls, lamps, cages, baskets, and even a pink, ceramic toilet. No space was unclaimed. Every object had a unique history or current purpose, and Musard knew where every one of them was located.
“There’s the folks who love figuring out the tricks, there’s folks who love building things. There’s folks who like doing the set dressing,” Musard said. “My favorite part is the hunt. I love when there’s something weird or specific, and I have to find it. That’s my favorite part.”
Musard shared that eBay, antique stores, and Facebook Marketplace are her go-tos for finding many of her props, and although she has to borrow objects from time to time, “it’s pretty easy to find things.”
Not so easy, perhaps, are the occasional challenges that come with the territory—the last-minute details.
“It comes down to when we’re about to open a show—the tiniest details,” Musard said. “So, like the felt pads on the chairs keep falling off. We need to do something about that. Or we need this book to open to the specific page, and it’s not working. So, there’s all these really little tasks that come at the end.”
While those ‘really little tasks’ might seem like no big deal to the average theater goer, they are, in fact, what make a production feel seamless to the audience.
So the next time you attend a play, be sure to take notice of the dressing, pay attention to the furniture, and look for that well-placed hand prop. Because of someone like Musard’s painstaking attention to the story, it’s made even more believable.
Dierdre Robinson is a writer and accounting professional who covers arts, culture, and community stories on the South Side of Chicago. She has a BA in Journalism from Michigan State University. She last wrote about South Side Tours for the Weekly.