Natalie Avery

Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Sharifian, Hesam

Area of Concentration

Theatre Dance and Performance Studies

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the materials and construction methods behind the pie props for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The first part of the thesis focuses on prop construction as a technical form and expands on what constitutes a consumable prop, as well as defines key words and vocabulary I use throughout my thesis. It also introduces the two productions I modeled my prop pies after. I focused on the 2023 Broadway production and the 2015 Vancouver Opera’s production, as well as a practical ‘cookbook’ as further reference. Here, I explore the materials and processes they followed and showcase which props I recreated. The second part of my thesis focuses on the reconstruction and implementation of the prop pies referenced in the productions. I constructed props for act one, scene three, and act two, scenes nineteen and twenty-four. These scenes feature three very distinct and separately constructed props, with a distinct material as their driving force. I chose to recreate all three of these props to familiarize myself with unknown materials and practices, as well as accumulate more experience working with edible and consumable props. I also share my thoughts, as a props fabricator, of these processes and how I would take these methods and implement them in an actual production I would work on.

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