Importance of History

Ron Arias talks about Jane Goodall in his article a woman who has an overwhelming passion for what she does. The way she started out studying prehistoric remains with Dr.Louis Leakey,the famed curator of Kenya's natural history museum, is something like a base for a props master. Most props masters are very interested in history because the plays often are an example of a time period. If you are working with Shakespeare everything has to be period. A props master needs to be able to look up and research to know what every prop would really look at in that time period. Eric Hart has worked on many shows including Shakespeare where he has done various amounts of research for objects in his shows. Eric Hart has so many different skills that help him in the props master theater world. He has written books on what it is like to be a props master on addition to that. I know I will have to write a profile on him in later blogs to elaborate on the works he does.

The prop's the thing: Eric Hart at work on the head for "The Bacchae" for Shakespeare in the Park, in 2009.

Photo by Michael Krikorian