Items from Plays

Mentioning my hair ribbons that were for the part of a doll in a Christmas sketch has reminded me of all the things I've used in/kept from plays. I have a hand-hemmed handkercheif from my part as Lucy in "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," - yes, the one that dries Tumnus's tears, is the signal from Mr. Beaver, and is offered to giant Rumblebuffin when he picks her up thinking she's the "hankerchee" (no, he's not in the play, but he's in the book). I have the complete outfit from that play - little girl's smock with Peter Pan collar, huge blue hair ribbon, black shoes. Shoes are an interesting thing in plays. So far, I've always had suitable shoes just in my normal everyday (well, Sunday) wear. A pair of low brown boots has been especially serviceable, supporting a Western old lady, a Williamsburg girl, and a Civil-War-Era Louisa May Alcott. I have the gown that I made for that part - a huge blue hoop skirt and jacket with wide gold trim. Trim is expensive, unless you buy the really small width, or you buy holiday craft ribbon. I chose the latter. Something else I inhereted from Louisa May Alcott is a special way of twisting, braiding, and pinning up my hair, which I can perform on myself. I kept my "journal" prop from the Western Old Lady part - a Vacation Bible School part- and it's now my story idea book (yes, I stole the idea from Matt). I have a lovely little sand-filled geckoe from another Vacation Bible School. He was named Guss and he freaked out the crazy pilot Skye Looplander. I have some aluminum foil armor from a sketch from "The Horse and His Boy" in which I played the part of Aravis. That part required a scimitar, which I borrowed from a friend, and was so thrilled with using that I convinced my brother to make me a broadsword. He made one for me (my design for the pommel and quillon - the hilt part, for those of you who don't know) and one for for himself. We then charged the geese in the back of our house with them, with my sister and a Japanese student, they being armed with wrapping paper tubes and we with our swords. We also did Bible story skits, cleverly orchestrated around having only three actors (my brother, my sister, and I - home schooling!) which resulted in our old ice cream scoop keeping a disguise of tin foil on it for years, in order to better represent a microphone. If you're wondering what a microphone is doing in a Bible skit, it was a modern reporter going back to Bible times to interview characters. Incidentally, putting on a complete Bible story with only three people can get challenging. One time my brother (always the technically inclined) suggested and we implemented cardboard cutouts of our faces and tape recordings of one character while we played another live. This was for Nebuchadnezzar and the reporter (the cutouts) while we were being Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego in the fiery furnace (or Rack, Shack, and Benny if you prefer). If you havn't guessed by now, I'm a theatre major. Don't get me started on all of the interesting things in my first college play - as props master, I know more than you'll ever want to hear about mice, flaming balloons, cages, masks...