For The Precursors, I designed and fabricated a collection of props that functioned as both practical performance objects and visual storytelling devices. Many of the props evolved alongside the narrative, requiring them to communicate the play's themes of memory, survival, and the preservation of stories while remaining durable for repeated performances.

The central prop of the production was a sculptural pile of approximately 7,000 burnt matches representing the people behind the stories the children recount throughout the play. To create the effect, I individually modified q-tips by removing one cotton tip end, painting the cut q-tip’s, and attaching them to a sculpted base to produce the appearance of thousands of charred matches. Additional unburnt matches were fabricated for use during the storytelling sequences, while matchboxes were modified and assembled into miniature buildings that became the physical worlds the children constructed as they told each story.

Additional prop work included refinishing vintage camping thermoses with hand-painted classic cartoon imagery to evoke childhood, distressing a tent to suggest years of exposure to the elements, and refinishing a camping table to create a storytelling surface that became the visual center of many scenes.

The project required balancing symbolism with practicality, creating props that not only supported the production aesthetically but also carried narrative meaning through repeated handling and performance.