Clybourne Park
Prop Designer Maxwell Martin
Working on Clybourne Park at UNC Charlotte, I was responsible for being both the prop designer, as well as lead artisan, and deck crew chief. I worked along side the scenic designer, to cultivate and source period accurate 1950s furniture within a tight budget, with limited stock. My build projects included making the two large '40s style army footlockers, making the bookshelf inserts, and generally distressing the furniture for the second act.
Due to the nature of the show, all of the items in the '50s world needed to be struck at intermission, and reveal a rundown version of the house years later.
Director Ron McClelland
Scenic Designer Gordon Olson
Costume Designer Margarette Joyner
Sound Designer Madison King
Lighting Designer Kat Fletcher
Stage Manager Rexy Brundige
Kenneth's Footlocker New and Aged Versions
Final Production Photo Taken by DJ Cook.
Clybourne Park calls for two identical 1940s era army footlockers, one that is newer but also gets launched down the stairs, and the other has been buried in the backyard for nearly 50 years.
I started off by researching the footlockers for that time, and then rough drafting out my ideal for what I wanted and went to work. My largest challenge with these two boxes, was getting them to be light enough for our young actress to carry down the stairs, while still being able to withstand the force of hitting the wall of the set every night.
After assembling both boxes, I painted them identical, with a medium brown wash underneath, and a brownish green over top. The 'dirty' footlocker, then got coated with a yellow- brown underlay for the dirt, and was then stippled with a mixture of real dirt, tacky glue, and dark brown paint.
A side by side comparison of the two finished footlockers.
'Dirty Mattress'
1950s Fridge Repaint/Restore
One of my smaller projects for 'Clybourne Park' was to create a dirty, soiled, and generally trashed mattress to live in the space. I used a solid white, new looking mattress, and used a watered down purple black paint to spatter 'mold spores' and then proceded to smear other paint colors, and spray paint onto it.
During the first act, our scenic designer, Gordon Olson, wanted there to be a visible 1950s fridge from the kitchen swinging door, to help with the overall immersion. I sourced, and then painted and cleaned a 1953 fridge I had found on facebook marketplace for $50.
While there are no final pictures of this piece, we did end up attaching wheels to the bottom, to roll on and off the kitchen during the big scene change. The fixtures were all painted back Silver like they were before.
Clybourne Park Paperwork
Below is an example of my prop list for 'Clybourne Park' where we divided the list between hand props, and set dressing and furniture to give clear boundaries to what the scenic designer was more direct with his vision about, versus the hand props which I was given more creative freedom in the design.