Build School Play Props on a Budget

So, you need to buy the props for the school play, but you have a budget or perhaps none at all! While you could put on a very minimalistic production and pretend you have scenery and props, there are some very simple and easy ways to put on a good production on a shoestring.

Steps

  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.
  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.
  3. Make backdrops. 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.
  4. Use What You Got. 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.
  5. Remember the Power of Suggestion. 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).
  6. Ask for loans and donations. 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 Fundraise Effectively 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.
  7. Take up a collection. 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.
  8. Keep an Eye for Multi-Purpose Props. 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.
  9. Start a Prop Collection. 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.
  10. Have a Fund Raiser. 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.

Tips

  • When designing and selecting props and scenery, make sure that they are as convincing as possible without being overly difficult for your crew and actors to handle.
  • Make sure all the scenery can be lifted and moved quickly and quietly during scene changes. Nobody likes to sit through long scene changes while the crew gets stuck. You can rehearse scene changes even before the scenes are completely done, to make sure that key pieces aren't overly heavy.
  • Get the actors and the entire crew involved in making whatever needs to be made. Just about anybody can apply a base coat of paint to something or learn to use a screwdriver or hammer nails.
  • Actors can be scenery, if done thoughtfully in the right circumstances. For instance, two people can form a gateway or the chorus can become trees in a forest. Actors briskly walking constantly across the stage can emulate a city street.
  • Painting tacky bric-a-brac gold or silver will make it look like a priceless antique.
  • Consider the period of your play and try to do a reasonably accurate job. Most libraries will have books on period furnishings, architecture, and the like.
  • Tissue paper can create lovely flowers on stage.

Warnings

  • Be careful of fumes from paint, paint thinner or remover, varnish, and the like.
  • Always put down drop cloths if painting inside.
  • Tools and paints can be hazardous. Get adult help if you need it, especially with cutting.
  • Do not use a hammer or saw directly on the stage.

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