Props to props

Where would Hamlet be without Yorick’s skull to cradle in his palm? Or Willy Loman without his suitcase? Or Hedda Gabler without her pistols? These characters and their plays are nearly unthinkable without their tell-tale props.

In the lower levels of the Modlin Center, the theater department stores thousands of props it has accumulated over the years, these among them. If the play’s the thing, the prop is often the tangible thing that makes it so.