Propping Each Other Up: Prop Team for The Savannah Disputation

Bibles, banana pudding and a bottle of Scotch...these are some of the things that Susan Townsend and I found in the prop list for The Savannah Disputation.  Having never done props before, we were not quite sure how to proceed, but we got expert advise from Bobbie Herbst, LTA Properties Chairman, such as:  1. Don’t buy anything until you find out if we already have it in the theater’s prop room.  2.  Don’t borrow anything from a friend or relative that they are going to want back.  3.  Thrift stores are your friend.  4. Don’t exceed your budget, and try very hard to come under budget. 

Being thrifty shoppers, and with the goal of coming under budget, Susan and I set to work.  We haunted area second hand stores and discount stores, sometimes together and sometimes alone.  When alone, we relayed messages to one another, via text and photos, that only the two of us could ever decipher.  Example:  “This one I didn’t get; does it look Catholic?” accompanied by a photo with a shelf full of ornate Christian crosses.

A few props required full price and specialty stores.  Try as we may, we could not find a second hand rosary, so I visited the Botanica Boracua on Columbia Pike to purchase a new one.  The Glenlivet Scotch, which the script is quite specific about, was the most expensive item on the list, but was absolutely necessary as well.  After pondering over where to get religious pamphlets, we found you can actually order them online!

What with crosses, bibles, and religious pamphlets, one gets the general idea that the central theme of the play is religion.  This is true, but it is also a bitter sweet examination of personal relationships.  It will make you laugh in places, but it will also make you think about your own beliefs and values, and the ways they are shaped by family, tradition and experience.  And maybe to look around your house to see how those beliefs are manifested on your mantel and on your bookshelves.

This is my first foray into a behind the scenes theater assignment, and I was glad for my partner Susan, who had served as the co-dresser for the LTA’s West Side Story and had some other production experience. Having worked for many years on the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, though, I knew a thing or two about having to find strange items for demonstrations and performances.  All in all it has been a fun experience, and having two of us really helped, for moral support as well as for ideas, such as how to “fake” banana pudding and still make it edible and semi-nonperishable.

Enjoy the play!
-Betty Belanus, Co-property Designer, The Savannah Disputation