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I have been teaching properties design and production classes at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for over two decades. Prior to that, I worked professionally as a properties director, properties artisan and designer when UWM recruited me to start a props training program in the professional training tracks. Students came to the theatre department with a passion for technical theatre having hung lights, built scenery, or run a show in high school or community theatre. However few were familiar with props or had even an inkling a professional properties career was a possibility. Each class of students sifted out a gifted few who excelled in the props area. These students have gone on to have highly successfu

He told The Stage: "Probably the most interesting thing is the bird caller. Plays like Romeo and Juliet have several references to birdsong so it could well have been used as a theatrical prop to create special effects."

These videos are a companion to my book, "The Prop Building Guidebook: For Theatre, Film, and TV".

Students often get hung up on the notion that in the theatre, sets, costumes, props all have to meet the standard of the movies. They have to be three dimensional and real. A car must have four wheels and move. A house must have two levels and different rooms. The truth is actually quite different - a theatre audience is very forgiving. If you let them know what world the play inhabits (two people sitting side by side on cubes, one holds their hands up as if holding a steering wheel) they will believe. They will go along for the ride. A single object can be so many different things - a chair can be a chair, or a car, or a mountain. The possibilities are endless.

" I have a special love for both Into the Woods and hilariously terrifying costumes