The Woes of Being Propmaster

As a handful of you may know, I have been working on a local production of "Hairspray" for the past month or so. I am the Propmaster. I am also in charge of back stage. I love working in the theater. I love being a part of this production.

That being said, I probably will not volunteer to be Propmaster again. It sounds like an easy job in theory: Figure out what kinds of props the show needs, go get them, and BAM! you're done. And while that may be part of the job, the other part, the part that frustrates me to insanity, is the fact that to get the props, you have to go shopping. At stores. Where other people are also shopping. Many of these stores are discount stores and thrift stores. And while I do not have anything against shopping at these kinds of stores, I do have something against the people who work at these stores. They act like everyone who shops in their store is poor, homeless, or on drugs. Because, honestly, why else would you be shopping at the Good-Will unless you were on public assistance?

Another awkward part of shopping at these stores is that the employees are very adamant about catching shop-lifters. The way they do this is by following "sketchy" looking shoppers around the store at a very obvious distance. They watch what they pick out and they make sure they keep these items in full view. Because god-forbid someone steals an iron that probably doesn't work for two dollars! One day I was evidently looking sketchy and was being followed around the shop. This was of course the day I needed to find very large women's underwear. So what would you think if you saw some guy in his thirties browsing the "granny panties"? After about twenty minutes I left and decided to shop elsewhere.

One of the bigger problems I have with being Propmaster is that the job never really ends. This past weekend was our first tech rehearsal. You'd think that I would have gotten everything we needed. But I left rehearsal with a list of other things I need to purchase. Things just come up. I'm not blaming the director by any means. It's just the way this job is. And even though our show opens tomorrow, I still have things to get. Some people may have no issue with this, but I like to have everything way ahead of time. This is the biggest source of stress and anxiety. This causes me to want to drink. This is why I haven't been sleeping very well.

I just re-read that last paragraph and it just hit me: THE SHOW OPENS TOMORROW.

Oh my God!

It's Go Time.




If you're interested in seeing this show, it runs August 11, 12, 13 and 18, 19, 20 at 7pm at Niagara Falls High School's Performing Arts Center. Check the flyer below for more information!