Experience: Properties Artisan at the Ohio Light Opera

 

In summer 2015, I worked at the Ohio Light Opera as a member of the prop department. This experience was beneficial to my education in stage props, a part of my major in CCM. I now understand why my college values outside work as much as it does, because it's impossible for one program to imitate the thousands of different experiences and standards different professional theatre companies practice.

 

I chose to undertake a summer position at this particular company because it offered me a job instead on an internship and because of the amazing experience of doing 7 shows in a repertory theatre fashion, where the shows all play in the same theatre at different times, intermingled so an audience member could see one show at 2:00 and another at 7:30 on the same day in the same place. This experience taught me more than I could have imagined; each day in the prop department held a new skill or technique to learn. My first experience, the spring 2015 honors seminar on Art and the Great Depression, helped me in this experience because I had the opportunity to apply my knowledge of regionalist painting to a show set in the appropriate time period. 

 

Working at the Ohio Light Opera taught me a lot about working as a props artisan, and a little bit about props management. I could see myself working in props management after graduation. I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to work in CCM's prop shop in spring semester 2015, which taught me skills that were transferrable to the Ohio Light Opera's shop as well. In turn, the new skills I learned at the Ohio Light Opera will transfer to the next 3 years I will work in CCM's prop shop. 

 

 

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