Dramaturgy of a Prop – Report from the set of ‘Sleep No More’ by Katie Flemming, ’09

As a student, I had been torn between doing dramaturgy and props, but as graduation approached I decided to pursue props.  Punchdrunk- a British promenade company I remembered from my time in London was coming to the ART, which was a huge part of my decision to apply for in internship there.  I worked on many shows while at the ART, but this company was my favorite and we talked about me working for them in the future.  Around February 2010 Punchdrunk confirmed they were transferring the show, Sleep No More to NY, and offered me a position starting in June 2010. I accepted!   In the meantime, some of the more exciting short term projects I did were propping I Do, I Do at Westport Playhouse, and freelancing in NY.  I even got to make some props that hit Broadway!

I started shopping for Sleep No More in September, 2010. We had to build the show pretty much bottom up with no props stock behind us.  It has been an amazing way to become more familiar with shopping in the tri state area and get comfortable behind the wheel of a box truck! I also really enjoyed shopping for a ten page props list; some needs were specific and some were so broad I was able to use my knowledge of the characters, stories and period to make design choices.

I’ve been working full time on the set of Sleep No More in NYC for 11 months now, and it’s been hugely successful. They’ve let me take July off to go to Au Brana workshop, a three week physical theatre workshop in France. Through the month of July, Au Brana proposes an intensive investigation into modes of storytelling and material generation for performance. The residency is led by the members of OBRA theatre Co. in association with two innovative and experienced theatre makers, Matej Matejka and Leo Kay.

I returned to Sleep No More full time in August and was offered a position on Mikhael Garver’s year long project Fornicated from the Beatles, which he has already workshopped at the Oberon at the A.R.T. and a club in Brooklyn. Mikhael trained under Anne Bogart at Columbia, assistant directed Sleep No More in Boston, and focuses mostly on installation/ site specific theatre where the audience wanders multiple simultaneous original scenes.

I’m also working on the side, dressing film sets, buying artifacts for galleries, and working on developing my own future projects. Although I’m not doing dramaturgy directly, my props/set job at Sleep No More is definitely about researching what belongs in the world of the show.