By Kurt Van Raden, Assistant Stage Manager, Denver Center Theatre Company

The set for A RAISIN IN THE SUN

PROPS, PROPS, PROPS! My role on this show is all about the props…. Some shows I work with moving scenery and coordinating when it moves and who moves it. This show demands different talents. Welcome to A RAISIN IN THE SUN. Set in a cramped apartment with hundreds of little props (doilies, pictures, knickknacks, papers, rugs, silverware, etc.)

Look around your apartment/home/office and imagine if everything was packed away would you know the exact placement of each of those items? What angle was the phone at? Where was the red pencil? What drawer had the postcards in it? How many stamps are in there too?

These are the questions that I record and know the answers to.  So many times on a ‘set’ we have items that never move. In those cases we attached the items to the set so they never have the possibility of falling over or getting moved. In A RAISIN IN THE SUN the family begins to pack all their items and eventually the entire apartment is packed and put away.  We as stage managers have to know where each item goes back to at the end of the night and where each item is during the scene.  Where the tea cup got placed on the sink, who set it there and when it happened.

I hope that if you come see us that you won’t have any idea how much work goes into setting the stage each night.  If so, we did it right.

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