In entertainment (movies, TV and of course theatre) one of the unsung heroes is the props. They can serve as just a background item on stage, an article that is placed for promotional consideration or something that is integral to the plot. No matter its importance, they all have to be stored somewhere and sometimes that area is in dire need of a makeover !
Enter the POLT team (Props at the OLT) who was faced with cleaning up the Props room located next door to the Green Room. It was packed with items, difficult to find anything and at times you could hardly even open the door. Just to give an idea of volume, there were around 40 phones, 35 suitcases, more cutlery than anyone can care to count in addition to a ton of plastic fruits and vegetables.
The task at hand was to cull, clean and catalog the props room. The team knew that there were so many props that they could easily get from the dollar store that were taking up a lot of space. They also knew that there were many things that were play specific that were unlikely to be needed again. Finally there was a lot of set dressing that they did not need to keep in the props room as they are a resource for set designers only. Those things were moved to the warehouse in order to make that another one-stop shop for our set folks.
Val Bogan and Fran Johnson led the charge and assisted by an energetic team ( Ann-Marie Snell, Barbara Merriman, Michelle Shortall, Jeanne Gauthier, Callie Legault, Cole Clemenhagen, Marie Gibson, Patrice Lefebvre, Bill Milner, Manon Verreault, Carol Cerrutti) had spent a solid eight weeks, pretty much 4-5 days per week on the props room, the linens, the back room in the workshop and the warehouse. But that wasn’t all ! Following that, Val spent two weeks working on the catalog for both the props room and the warehouse with an eye to future considerations.
The team began by taking all the props that had been left on the floor and culling that. This was followed by removing items unit by unit and shelf by shelf and sifting through them. There were some tough decisions on what to keep, what to put in the sale, what to give to the Salvation Army and other charities and what to keep. These decisions were largely left to Fran to decide upon. As an experienced props person, she was best placed to do so and did a great job. Equally, Barbara and Ann-Marie did a cull of phones and suitcases. Together they made decisions on what was worth keeping and what really needed to go due to damage .
During the course of eight weeks, the team disposed of 60 bags of garbage with over half being of industrial size. Some props were brought over to the Hintonburg Community Centre and to the Salvation Army. They also threw out loose items such as old radios that were beyond repair and damaged curtains and other linens. The outside theatre bin at times was filled to overflowing. However, every item that was tossed was scrutinized as to their future requirement at the theatre. In addition, all the linens that were stored had to be cleaned.
Like any good crew worth its salt, the team ensured that it had a strategy for the future, otherwise the room would inevitably be returned to the former state ( think a teenager’s dwelling !) The new process as developed by the POLT team is as follows. Props people are free to take whatever they need off the shelves but for the return, bins are set up on the floor in the room where they can discard of anything they are not using. On closing night of every play there will be someone from the props team who will take in the props, put them back where they were taken from and make decisions on keeping or disposing of anything new that they bought for a specific play. For instance, Lucille LeVert bought a few things at the dollar store for The Ladies Foursome. The decision was made to not keep those items as they are easily and inexpensively replaced as required.
So how does it look ? One word…amazing !! Everything has been cleaned and organized and it is displayed in a way 
that everything is easy to find. There are photos on the fronts of all bins and a catalog to help people with their searches.
Finally, as in all cleanups in an area with lots of history, there are some interesting items to be found. In the case of the POLT team these consisted of a fully decorated wedding cake, a vintage hand held green hair dryer, WWII gas masks, some truly ugly clay and ceramic knick-knack and most notably, a full suit of armour that the POLT team affectionately named Henry.
-Albert