Introduction

Introduction Humble stage properties are objects that often escape notice when they are functioning properly. Though insignificant at first glance, theatrical props are worthy of our attention, and not only because of the potential of the inappropriate or malfunctioning prop to destroy illusion and disrupt a performance. It is equally fascin­ at­ ing to consider how props can be skillfully employed by playwrights and other theatre artists. An invitation to theatre scholars and practitioners to take a fresh look at props, “The Prop’s the Thing: Stage Properties Reconsidered” was selected as the theme of the 2009 SETC Theatre Symposium held at Wake Forest University in Winston-­ Salem, North­ Carolina. Anchoring the event were keynote presentations by two experts who, from very different perspectives, each provided unique knowledge and insights, practical and theoretical, about how props work in the theatre. Bland M. Wade Jr., director of the Stage Properties Program at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, offered a first-­ person perspective on the typical challenges of creating stage props in his talk, “Through the Eyes of the Property Director.” Wade also led symposium attendees on an informative guided tour of the impressive Scenic and Property Studios at the UNC School of the Arts. The other keynote speaker, Andrew Sofer, has made a significant contribution to the academic study of props with his book The Stage Life of Props (2003). Indeed , his work was widely cited by other presenters. In his paper, “‘Take up the Bodies’: Shakespeare’s Body Parts, Babies, and Corpses,” Sofer reconsidered his earlier position on “whether the human body could become a prop” and reviewed a variety of methods for disposing of corpses on the Shakespearean stage. Following Sofer’s presentation, symposium 6      i n t r o d uct i o n 6     I n t r o d uct i o n participants had a chance to view the Wake Forest University Theatre production of King Lear, which included a full range of “corpse as prop” removal methods. The other essays included in this collection approach the subject of stage properties from several angles, including close examination of the use of props by individual playwrights in many different periods of theatre history. In “‘Summon up the Blood’: The Stylized (or Sticky) Stuff of Violence in Three Plays by Sarah Kane,” Christine Woodworth addresses the practical challenges presented by blood used as a stage prop, while identifying three different strategies employed by playwright Sarah Kane in presenting violence and blood onstage. Sarah Powers examines prop use in classical Greece in “Helen’s Theatrical Mêchanê: Props and Costumes in Euripides’ Helen,” focusing on abundant prop use as a marker of comedy. Euripides’ experimentation with props, parodied by Aristophanes, is a key element in his challenge of genre conventions. In “A Cannonade of Weapons: Signs of Transgression in the Early Com­ media dell’arte,” Kyna Hamill looks at the use of prop weapons to mark social status as well as the transgression of prescribed social roles. When lower-­ class characters wield weapons inappropriately or over­ load them­ selves with too many, the props are used to great comic effect. Christopher J. Mitchell demonstrates that judicious use of props was a central element of the dramaturgy of August Strindberg’s chamber plays in “Adding Some ‘PEP’ (‘Proto-­ Expressionistic Props’) to the Swedish Stage: Strind­ berg’s Property Usage and His Intima Teater.” The symbolic objects reveal the characters’ private anguish and tormented pasts. Sometimes a single key property is crucial to the construction of the dramatic action. In “Rattle Away at Your Bin: Women, Community, and Bin Lids in Northern Irish Drama,” Eleanor Owicki explores the theatrical power of an ordinary object that has been invested with cultural significance. In this case it is a rubbish bin lid, whose culturally specific meaning is used and also subverted in the Charabanc company’s play Somewhere over the Balcony. Adrienne C. Macki traces the stage evolution of a single strikingly significant prop in “Bearing Witness: The Noose as an Iconic Prop in African Ameri­ can Theatre.” Macki identifies three separate phases of lynching drama, distinguished by the presence or absence of the noose and the manner...