Final Transmission was an unscripted play set on a blue-collar spaceship, along the lines of Alien's "Nostromo". The set design didn't include a sickbay, which turned out to be trouble. If a character had been attacked by shipmates or mauled by an alien, they'd be taken offstage to "sickbay". Someone would have to come back later to explain what the doctor had learned examining the wounded character. It added up to a lot of exposition and stalling. I was prop designer. I set out to fix that.
In unscripted theatre, prop design is toymaking. Toymaking is about inciting play. You shape a player's actions by providing toys which make easy to do what the director requires. Here, that meant inspiring people to play a ship's doctor. If toys could make people want to be doctors onstage, there'd be no need to leave for sickbay.
In unscripted theatre, prop design is toymaking. Toymaking is about inciting play. You shape a player's actions by providing toys which make easy to do what the director requires. Here, that meant inspiring people to play a ship's doctor. If toys could make people want to be doctors onstage, there'd be no need to leave for sickbay.
A doctor needs to perform two gestures onstage. They need to examine people, and treat people. To inspire a doctor, I needed a small, portable medkit, with at least one toy inciting examination and one toy inciting treatment.
To inspire examination, I sawed the cord off a small supermarket price scanner. The result had a form factor similar to Star Trek hand scanners. Once I added a backed-cellophane 'readout' across its top, it was obvious to players how to scan (point at subject) and how to read the results (look at top).
To inspire sci-fi-appropriate treatment, I turned a glue gun into an injector gun. An irrigation syringe mounted in the neck of a 2-liter Coke bottle became its cartridge. The removable cartridge to allow players to change what exactly the injector did, by changing cartridges. Not only did this inspire treatment, it also inspired evil doctors, who could pointedly change the cartridge to something toxic if they didn't like the way a patient answered their questions.
The gas mask bag I used to carry the kit had a bit of space left over, which I filled with a single Ace bandage, a vial of vitamin pills, and a handful of empty plastic vials. The bandage and pills invited other forms of treatment. The empty vials, easily used to mime taking samples, invited extra examination.
To inspire sci-fi-appropriate treatment, I turned a glue gun into an injector gun. An irrigation syringe mounted in the neck of a 2-liter Coke bottle became its cartridge. The removable cartridge to allow players to change what exactly the injector did, by changing cartridges. Not only did this inspire treatment, it also inspired evil doctors, who could pointedly change the cartridge to something toxic if they didn't like the way a patient answered their questions.
The gas mask bag I used to carry the kit had a bit of space left over, which I filled with a single Ace bandage, a vial of vitamin pills, and a handful of empty plastic vials. The bandage and pills invited other forms of treatment. The empty vials, easily used to mime taking samples, invited extra examination.
I introduced the prop to the cast by saying, "This is your medkit. Examine people with this. Here's an injector gun. You can unscrew the cartridge like so." They were given no direction beyond that in the medkit's use. The medkit would succeed or fail on its strengths as a toy.
It succeeded.
The medkit created strong stage pictures, helped to define status among the crew, and inspired strong scenes which could not exist without its toys. One night, a doctor began interrogating people one by one under the influence of truth serum injections, which left him alone with a villain who killed him with an overdose of truth serum. Another night, a doctor looked at the cartridge and admitted that he only had painkillers, because the ship's owners hadn't paid for actual medicines. After all, the owners had stocked his kit with just one bandage.
Simple toys, making it easy to perform gestures within the world of the show, inspired performers to deeper play. Plus, no one ever stalled the show by "going off to sickbay" again.
Simple toys, making it easy to perform gestures within the world of the show, inspired performers to deeper play. Plus, no one ever stalled the show by "going off to sickbay" again.
Show photos courtesy of Todd Gardiner at Hieroglyph Photography.
