Prop Building and Stagecraft @ Tam High – Youth in Arts

Prop Building and Stagecraft @ Tam High

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An earlier post describes the theater production of the original one-act play lead by YIA Mentor Artist Melissa Briggs in collaboration with students from Mr. Michael Lovejoy’s Marin County Office of Education (MCOE) Special Ed class.
Mentor Artist Donna Keiko Ozawa joined the production in December to work with the students on stage props and sets. Here are some photos of the process.
Some of the students’ characters required props they could carry on stage. These were fabricated from simple materials: cardboard, wood, craft foam, metal hinges, and stickers. Students learned how to drill, and colored the wood with permanent markers.

Tevin and Donna construct a cellphone.

Mentor Artist Donna Keiko Ozawa assists Tevin with marking holes for the hinge on the cellphone prop.

Tevin loves woodworking.

Maribel enjoys working with tools.

Jake drilling

Jake learns to drill holes for a hinge.

Various cellphones, PDAs and camera props for the show that students made.

Students also used rubber stamps on foam core to create a miniature cityscape to represent San Francisco on one side of  our large prop of the Golden Gate Bridge.
This process also took into account students’ physical and cognitive abilities to create an aesthetic that worked well with theme of the show.  (Spoiler: There is an earthquake involved…)
The cityscape assembled and will be seen off the Bridge (a larger prop not pictured here).

Maggie working on the fascade of a building in the cityscape prop.

Buildings students stamped for the cityscape.

The cityscape prop is light and portable for quick placement on stage.

Can you imagine this cargo ship off the Bay in the distance? (Foamcore, paint, cardboard, hot glue).

Show time is January 12 and 17. Please join us on Thursday January 12th or 19th at 7PM, Tam High’s Caldwell Theatre, 700 Miller Avenue (near the back parking lot) Mill Valley, CA.  Box office opens at 6:30PM and advance tickets are available online as well.

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