Properties Design and partial Set Dressing by Laura Merrill

City Lights Theater Company (San José, CA) November 2023

Written by Ken Ludwig

Directed by Mark Anderson Phillips

This hilarious whodunit may best be described as Blithe Spirit meets The Hollow … with glittering 1930s flair. Set during the Christmas holidays in 1936, the comedy takes us into the Connecticut castle of Broadway star William Gillette, widely renowned for his stage turns as Sherlock Holmes. The weekend party is all fun and games until one of the guests gets murdered, and Gillette realizes he’ll have to play Sherlock for real

With the set being inspired by William Gillette’s medieval stone mansion the properties design needed to both reflect the opulence of the mansion and showcase Gillette’s leading-edge tech interests of that time. By combining the “new” tech elements with older wooden and brass pieces, an almost steampunk-like effect is created for the tech while keeping the tone realistic to the 1930’s.

Some notable pieces made for this production include:

• A magnetic knife rig. This was designed so the knife could be put on and taken off the actor without having to leave the stage.

  I created a rig made from a posture supporter and fitted with magnets to fit underneath the actor’s costume. Working with the costume designer (by creating a couple key holes in the costume) we pulled off Daria’s stabbing scene.

• An old speaker system set within a wooden shelf housing stained with the same color as the remote.

  The speaker was purchased from Ebay, and I created a custom shelf housing with plywood and a burgundy stain.

• A custom painted gold deer on top of the speaker cabinet.

  I sourced a plain white deer statue for free online and then painted with gold Rub’n Buff metallic finish to give it a more affluent feel.

• The bronze cat statue used for the fight scene between Aggie and Simon. During this scene Aggie hits Simon with a bronze statue and knocks him out.

  To make the statue look realistic (but also light and safe for the actors) I bought a plastic black cat piggy bank that looked good for what I wanted. I then painted it to look like a bronze statue with a combination of latex paint and a dark glaze. Finally, I glued that to a small, wooden, burgundy stained stand.