Things are coming together for Children of the Night, with our props, lighting, sound, and even fight choreography. To whet your appetite, here are a few pictures of the props that we’re working with & finding ways to integrate into the show. Enjoy!

Just Kidding…

We don’t have quite that big of a jumble of things. It only feels like the prop pile is a Katamari ball waiting to envelope us all.

First off, let’s talk grappling hook! We have a scene with a character scaling in through a castle window, and, since grappling hooks are highly priced at the local ninja academy supply store, we decided to make our own. We started with a broken grabber arm (of the type that are typically given to elderly patients who can’t bend down to pick things up). After unscrewing the rubber grippers and smashing the handle off with a hammer, we had some promising angular “spikes” of metal. Then we added a few more bent pieces of aluminum railing to make perpendicular spikes. To hold this grappling hook together, we taped it all inside of two aluminum gang boxes from electrical junctions. In the process, that created a base to wind around and glue climbing rope onto (after we paint it all cast iron black).

To avoid actual maiming (or damage to the stage), we also got liquid rubber to coat the ends of the grapples. Or would that be “the hooks”?