The Seven Year Disappear
Props Supervisor
The New Group
The Griffin Theatre at Signature Center
January – March 2024
Written by
Jordan Seavey
Directed by
Scott Elliott
Scenic Design by
Derek McLane
Jordan Seavey’s The Seven Year Disappear is, effectively, a piece of contemporary performance art staged as a theatrical play (or vice versa). The design is minimalist, as the play reveals itself to be a MOMA installation by its end, living in the monochromatic world of that iconic logo.
While the minimalist aesthetic yielded and appropriately minimalist props package, the play featured several key furniture pieces that had to be reinforced and/or modified for our staging, and kept visually pristine beneath the many brutal top lights that punctuate the show. A full-size bedframe (along with the accompanying mattress) had to be cut down to 5′ in length to allow for more backstage space; a small conference table was reinforced with angle iron to accommodate our actors’ weight during a long, intimate scene where both sit on the DS edge of the table.
Most notably, the play heavily features video, both pre-recorded and live-monitored. I worked closely with designer John Narun and his team in creating props — including a 3D printed stand for a tabletop camera — that would support expensive camera equipment and provide static, stable angles for the run of the show.
The Seven Year Disappear was my first job working with The New Group as Props Supervisor; we had a great team, and it was an extremely positive experience.
Fun moments from this production included: Velcro-ing a vape pen to the inside of a plastic bong for the actors to smoke on stage; cutting through a memory foam mattress with a Sawzall; making impromptu prop crack-cocaine out of crushed Dum-Dums.
