Propping fragments of history

the criative process of prop designers in São Paulo theater

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present a point of view about the work of the prop designer, which is one of the work fronts of theatrical scenotechnics. Aspects of the prop designer work and considerations about their creative process, which is simultaneously individual and collective, will be discussed. Aspects of the hierarchization of knowledges, work relations and lack of understanding of processeses that require manual constructive labor will be addressed under the scope of what the sociologist Nathalie Heinrich (2005) calls artist status. I also bring forward the way in which the reach of documentation analysis leads theatrical studies to other fields, sidelining possible considerations about specific backstage professions. The focus of this publication is aimed at the understaing of the knowledges arising from practice and working alongside artists of the scene, in order to understand how prop designing processes exist beyond practical knowledge and can also contribute to the construction of discourses and thought. Therefore, it is cosidered that group theater is a territory of preservation of scene design professions, amongst them, the prop designer.