Santa’s Workshop: The Props of "A Christmas Carol"
Posted by Selena Chau, A.C.T. Web Development Fellow Every season there are special upgrades and enhancements made to the familiar Christmas Carol props to keep the show fresh and new. While the actors rehearsed lines, staging, carols, and dances in the William Ball Rehearsal Studio (on the 8th floor of A.C.T.’s 30 Grant Avenue complex), the A.C.T. production staff worked their backstage magic in the A.C.T. Prop and Scene Shop, a 20,000-square-foot warehouse that has been located in the Mission district since A.C.T.’s move out west from Pittsburgh in 1967. Over the years, the shop has built and stored props and scenery from productions that have played at A.C.T.’s Geary Theater and other stages. From the outside, the building is indistinguishable from neighboring warehouses on the block, but stepping inside reveals fantastic and unexpected tools, machinery, and props. As you enter, you see the replica of the Tosca Cafe bar sign (a keepsake from our 2010 dance-theater prod...