JACKSON BERKLEY

In Summer 2023, Bethany Stewert at Titanique hired me to re-fabricate and touch up a few props that had undergone some wear and tear over many nights of musical comedy.

The props were a model ship that gets “ripped” in half during a key musical climax, and a pair of candelabra arms in the style of Lumiere’s from Beauty & The Beast. The original ship prop was hollow and over time the carboard had begun to collapse; the candelabra arms were losing their luster, and the LED candles needed a more reliable replacement.

I added some rigid foam “muscle” to the interior of the ship (after a bit of scrolling, I was able to find the original prop’s exact Titanic model on Amazon!) as well as stronger magnets to keep the two halves of the ship together leading up to the climatic moment where an actor “rips” them apart. To salve the cracks and chips that had developed on the finish of the candelabra arms, I coated the plastic dinner plate that served as the candelabra’s base with a layer of clear epoxy resin; to glow them up a bit, I added fresh silver and gold garlands, as well as fresh coats of metallic gold spray paint. To re-illuminate the candles, I padded the terminals of the CR-32 batteries within the LED casing, so a stagehand could easily twist them on and off before they hit the stage.

Titanique is a wonderful show, and I was glad to be able to lend a lift props-wise.

Fun moments included: building a cardboard model of the Titanic, playing with tons of small magnets, using a range of glues and adhesives to keep the model ship from falling apart, spray painting props gold (always a favorite).