How to Build School Play Props on a Budget
Go To The Recycling Center., Check the Hardware Store for Paint., Make backdrops., Use What You Got., Remember the Power of Suggestion., Ask for loans and donations., Take up a collection., Keep an Eye for Multi-Purpose Props., Start a Prop...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Go To The Recycling Center.
In many communities there are waste-reduction efforts to keep furniture, household furnishings, wood, paint, and building materials out of the landfill.
Check your municipality for such programs.
Also, if you ask people nicely at your landfill, transfer station, or whatever for what you need, very often they will look out for what you need and put it aside. -
Step 2: Check the Hardware Store for Paint.
Very often a paint color is mixed, but it isn't quite right for the customer.
These are often available free or at greatly reduced price if asked.
Be sure to thank them on your program and send a thank-you card. , Take some old sheets or canvas drop cloths (very white and no holes) and pull them taut over wooden frames.
Make enough to cover the back of the stage.
Prime them with a first.
Enlist some help from some good artists at your school and make them into your backdrops.
Canvas or another such heavier fabric will make backdrops that are a little sturdier, which lets the backdrops be reused Backdrops from previous years can be repainted into new scenery, unless you want to leave them generic.
Painted bricks could be a city scene, a castle, a cheap apartment, or quite a number of other things depending upon what is around them. , Find furnishings.
For chairs, tables, and desks see if you can borrow furnishings that the school already has around, such as lunch table with a tablecloth over it as a table.
Use a school desk as a desk if the style fits, or use some faux finish and make a cutout on some plywood or cardboard and attach it to the desk to make the style fit.
Ask the Custodian.
Your school may have a roomful of old tables, old drop cloths, milk crates, and know where to find the best cardboard.
Usually, only the maintenance people really know what's over there. , Remember that objects need to look like and suggest what they are, not necessarily be what they are.
Thus, a tree or bush could be cut out of a piece of plywood and painted (be sure to support it securely and to construct it lightly enough to be movable). , Does somebody have an old sofa, a hat tree, a lamp, and so on? Take good care of anything that is borrowed, and ask your fellow actors and crew to do the same.
Label it if you can do so in a discreet and reversible manner, and keep a list of what belongs to whom, to make sure everything goes home at the end of the last show.
Post fliers around your school, asking if anyone can bring in objects like a telephone, hand mirror, etc.
Hold a scavenger hunt.
Just make sure that you have permission to use all the objects you collect. , If you have little or no budget, ask if everybody involved in the play will bring in a little money (say $5 or $10) for props.
Even a little bit can go a long way. , Some prop items can be used and re-used a long time.
Things like old artificial Christmas trees, basic cafe-style tables and chairs, wooden crates, plain lengths of fabric, old suitcases and so on are fundamental prop items. , If you're planning on developing a drama program, start a prop collection so the next prop master doesn't have to start from scratch.
Talk to the custodian about what space may be available to keep prop items.
Catalog and list what's in there for the next show. , You can try a bake sale, redeemable can and bottle drive (especially in your own cafeteria) and the like.
For the seriously creative, you can pledge you will drop your benefactor's name in the dialogue, offer to send "singing telegrams" to unsuspecting fellow students or teachers, or more. -
Step 3: Make backdrops.
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Step 4: Use What You Got.
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Step 5: Remember the Power of Suggestion.
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Step 6: Ask for loans and donations.
-
Step 7: Take up a collection.
-
Step 8: Keep an Eye for Multi-Purpose Props.
-
Step 9: Start a Prop Collection.
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Step 10: Have a Fund Raiser.
Detailed Guide
In many communities there are waste-reduction efforts to keep furniture, household furnishings, wood, paint, and building materials out of the landfill.
Check your municipality for such programs.
Also, if you ask people nicely at your landfill, transfer station, or whatever for what you need, very often they will look out for what you need and put it aside.
Very often a paint color is mixed, but it isn't quite right for the customer.
These are often available free or at greatly reduced price if asked.
Be sure to thank them on your program and send a thank-you card. , Take some old sheets or canvas drop cloths (very white and no holes) and pull them taut over wooden frames.
Make enough to cover the back of the stage.
Prime them with a first.
Enlist some help from some good artists at your school and make them into your backdrops.
Canvas or another such heavier fabric will make backdrops that are a little sturdier, which lets the backdrops be reused Backdrops from previous years can be repainted into new scenery, unless you want to leave them generic.
Painted bricks could be a city scene, a castle, a cheap apartment, or quite a number of other things depending upon what is around them. , Find furnishings.
For chairs, tables, and desks see if you can borrow furnishings that the school already has around, such as lunch table with a tablecloth over it as a table.
Use a school desk as a desk if the style fits, or use some faux finish and make a cutout on some plywood or cardboard and attach it to the desk to make the style fit.
Ask the Custodian.
Your school may have a roomful of old tables, old drop cloths, milk crates, and know where to find the best cardboard.
Usually, only the maintenance people really know what's over there. , Remember that objects need to look like and suggest what they are, not necessarily be what they are.
Thus, a tree or bush could be cut out of a piece of plywood and painted (be sure to support it securely and to construct it lightly enough to be movable). , Does somebody have an old sofa, a hat tree, a lamp, and so on? Take good care of anything that is borrowed, and ask your fellow actors and crew to do the same.
Label it if you can do so in a discreet and reversible manner, and keep a list of what belongs to whom, to make sure everything goes home at the end of the last show.
Post fliers around your school, asking if anyone can bring in objects like a telephone, hand mirror, etc.
Hold a scavenger hunt.
Just make sure that you have permission to use all the objects you collect. , If you have little or no budget, ask if everybody involved in the play will bring in a little money (say $5 or $10) for props.
Even a little bit can go a long way. , Some prop items can be used and re-used a long time.
Things like old artificial Christmas trees, basic cafe-style tables and chairs, wooden crates, plain lengths of fabric, old suitcases and so on are fundamental prop items. , If you're planning on developing a drama program, start a prop collection so the next prop master doesn't have to start from scratch.
Talk to the custodian about what space may be available to keep prop items.
Catalog and list what's in there for the next show. , You can try a bake sale, redeemable can and bottle drive (especially in your own cafeteria) and the like.
For the seriously creative, you can pledge you will drop your benefactor's name in the dialogue, offer to send "singing telegrams" to unsuspecting fellow students or teachers, or more.
About the Author
Scott Jenkins
A passionate writer with expertise in pet care topics. Loves sharing practical knowledge.
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