oh my pretties I'm standing in a very happy place right now I'm in San
Francisco at the San Francisco Show of Hamilton on the set and I love this show
I've talked about it endlessly I love theater because that's where I got my
start and to be honest it's the first art form that will survive an apocalypse
totally intact but the old prop master in me has watched Hamilton the multiple
times I've seen it and just notice the sheer volume of hand props and stuff
that move across the stage and disappear quickly so we are going to talk to this
show's prop master Mike Ike Meyer about what his job is like what he has to
repair and just how much abuse actors can dish out to the hand props
Mike you are the prop master here is that correct yes correct okay I'm the
head props and because this show is being done all over the world your job
is totally easy right everything was just ordered from New York and delivered
and it all works right yes okay yes it is not always it works out that way but
yes and then over the course of running the show we break things well having
seen the show a few times I'm astounded by the density of objects that move
across a stage even though it's a very open frame stage like you have to manage
a lot of physical objects during the night yes we do can we talk about this
right here this it here this is a great place to start one of our camel carts
okay this is for which scene this is for helpless and satisfied right right right
is my favorite thing I noticed this morning which is the fake glass of
champagne and in the epoxy and the glue dude this so this is super cool I love
this kind of thing right because you've got the glitter in there which makes it
look like champagne bubbles to the audience
yeah and the actors and I didn't realize this you've got there all magnetic so so
that someone can pick up a tray and it doesn't fall yes they right out on the
cart and so that way and the tray is actually a magnetic to the carpet
oh that that is really many other things if you notice yeah they're not all the
same oh through different actors grab different ones depending on where
they're this just that they're not perfect not perfect that is lovely
and then these light up these are the electrics Department yep and this is a
type of fake candle I have some of these in my house they look remarkable that's
wonderful so none of the flame on stage is real the only time we have flame on
stage is during the song burn when she's going to burn so a letter then and it's
that like that's a thing to set a fire on the stage there's always and we have
an opal we have a candle yeah we use a beeswax candle and one of the other
things is about the paper that they use for resetting the actual burn letter
when they design that they actually sat in a shop a whole day with all
of different papers and burning them burning them to see to get the right
amount of time so they actually spent a whole day burning all kinds of different
pieces of paper behind the right one that makes me so happy yes that's
exactly the kind of research I love yeah and speaking of paper there's a lot of
paper in the show there's the Reynolds pamphlet gets thrown all over the place
where there's a couple hundred pieces of paper got I have a large spreadsheet of
stuff too well with the reynolds pants this is the well pamphlet
this is this is a group one that uh burr takes out there and right throws up in
the air so this is a group of twenty never gonna be president now this is
amazing oh so you've used some greek text in here but the it's like you've
used an old parchment it feels there all right
yep how often do you have to replace these you need a certain amount on stage
every night already have 70 of these on stage and i actually a little bit up
about 75 so part of your daily thing is making sure there's enough there's no
out there we actually have them all there and then also these get changed
out about once a month sometimes a little sis . changed out yeah yeah
because they get worn yeah usually uh definitely a paper change every month
most of the times some papers get changed that sooner that no I used to
work in props and I've wrangled them on set and I've built them for shows and
one thing that astounded me is I've never not been amazed by how much damage
a small female actress can do to large welded steel oh absolutely if it can be
broken in the actors find some way to break it yes
do you have the same issues I have the same issues one of our issues is these
chairs over here behind the candle cart okay which will I'll show you here if
you want to take a look at these chairs one of these chairs have been repaired
and one of them has not okay let's I I actually
upon the cursory view it's not totally obvious to me this one feels a little
lighter is that the one that was there has been repaired it actually split the
leg whoa here okay so you've got a join here in fiberglass to hold it together
actually this is fiber fix fiber fix what is that
it is a uh you know they use it to fix shuttle handles an air dry fiber yeah
you get wet and it has its own built in resin so what we did was we actually use
the CA glue to run through the joint right right or the crack yeah clamped it
and then we put this over it and paint it that and like how does hoop how does
somebody break that chair I don't but it was it came off broken but now each of
these like these carts I can see they've got little happens we're hitting their
market into the yeah this track actually right here and that's how they make it
on stage are actually a trainable see this actually moves on a track yeah it's
actually pushed out by a person and with the push thick it actually pushes this
train of four out that's incredible that we have connecting bars that connect the
two together so there's space in between them and it just means that they can hit
their mark that much faster or that much more reliable well we can't actually
because they go out on stage right right oh well so you can't you can't take them
out there on your own so you train them out and one person pulls them off so
everything is moving and sliding and again I've seen this show what gets the
most abuse during the course of that probably this blue box over here behind
you this is the one who stays on to the farmer refuted right a farmer refuted
and Hamilton stands on it in my shot right and so this one probably because
during my shot it gets literally hurled upstage to the back wall okay so I
receive this getting abuse and it probably had splinters oh yes you have
to sand it make sure the actors are safe and then it looks like a nice old box
which means it as the paint wears off you have to repaint it with some new
shit we have to paint repaint read distress it's not trivial oh my god
oh yeah that simple boxes that this is your headache it is you know and these
boxes are actually if you notice how light they are because the actors
actually have to carry it right but it has to hold it out for a hold somebody
it's a they're very unique they're actually foamed what's that it's
actually foam it's actually foam on the inside yeah it's a solid block it's a
urethane I see so there's no compressibility it's basically pink
foam and then they put up make a plywood shell that's super awesome yep that's
how they're so light but yeah you can stand on okay but what if so now I'm
also thinking about the table that BIR stands on for room where it happened
oh that table the mirror table yes yes that is actually on the other side we'll
get to go can we go take a look actually we should probably stop and look this up
there if you want long the way I want to look at the scepter so we're going that
way so this is the scepter the king so oh that is lovely it is it's a really
nice little swagger stick there yeah I could carry one of these alright just
walk around I think I could tell them is it the same scepter for each one of the
yes travelling shows we have a pair of these this is the one everybody uses I
see but yeah and all the shows have them that's the same piece the actor get
attached to it over time I would imagine imagine something so
this isn't just where it's stored in general this is where it's stored during
the show am i right and we bring it down at intermission just like this and we
unstack it and sew a dress we dress both tables we clean we clean the mirror
table and dress it I had no idea it was a mirror table until I just looked up at
the underside and this is the one that burst and so that's the one burst ass
room where it happens I'm amazed that there are so many pieces you literally
can't store them backstage you have to fly them yeah it's just easier just to
hang them up because you want to take it off for you
yeah we can that is remarkably unscratched given that an actor stands
on it every night yeah it actually has a tablecloth on it ah okay let me grab the
cord he still stood there cost removed during the dance he and he literally
does a bunny hop they fold it surprises me every single time I've seen the show
and then he jumps off of it you can actually see the footprints from last
night oh yes so again oh he's wearing some soft soled sneakers or not sneakers
but yeah their shoe rubber and that's the table
and this this hasn't this looks like it's in pretty original shape but it
doesn't look like you've had to repair it no we have not had to repair it we
don't do a little touch-up to it we polished the mir about once a month and
then otherwise every night we clean it amazing I'm noticing yep I'm noticing
tons of weaponry and swords around have the three swords and we have lots of
muskets oh oh wait wait wait sorry I'm talking out good dueling pistols can we
see the dueling absolutely let's go get the dueling okay it's so awesome these
are the pistols these are the pistols oh and the cool thing is on the they have a
lion on them yeah still trigger discipline still ingrained wow that's
amazing to see them up close I mean it's such a key moment right you know did
they get used both for generally and for Amazon and these are must get these must
get a lot of abuse or do they do they get dropped on the floor every night
really yep did they look pretty good for getting dropped on the floor every day's
we we haven't really had to do any maintenance to them I notice as we've
covered armaments in Hollywood films that the actors prefer the foam weapons
but the directors like to give them heavy things yes and these are heavy
yeah no there's definitely like you can see that when you're right you're
holding it up it's got some real happen to it if it was just a piece of foam yep
you'd see that same way what was our muskets do you have more than two in
stock I have I have another one right there so that you can swap out if you
need to yeah amazing oh my god Mike thank you so much for letting me handle
some of your toys oh absolutely that is really awesome there you go
thank you
and there you have it I can't believe I get to touch some of those props you can
still buy tickets to come see this show and you should it's playing that the
Orpheum Theater tickets can be bought at Broadway SF dot-com I'll see you here