Hollywood High School Prop Room

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The prop room at Sherwood High School smells like mildew, wet wool, and hormones. It’s hidden behind the back curtain of the pitifully small stage, where double doors open into the dank concrete box of a room crowded with decaying furniture, buckets of old paint, and racks of crumbling costumes. The near wall is dedicated to holding costumes, while the far side of the room is occupied by chairs, and tools, and essentially anything you could find in the homegoods section of a Goodwill. I’ve really never paid much attention to the far end of the prop room, because I’m always too occupied with the costumes. I am fascinated by costumes in the same way one might be fascinated with abandoned asylums or haunted houses. There’s something disconcerting about empty costumes, particularly in a high school theatre. They should be alive and filled with all the energy and passion of a teenaged actor, but instead they are just hanging against the wall, abandoned exoskeletons of the characters they are meant to represent. They are haunted by the distinct scent of old sweat, decomposing polyester, and faded cheap perfume. Costumes are organized on the main rack by …show more content…

The part of me that comes from my ex-hippie grandmother would tell you I can feel the residual energy of past wearers, but more than likely I just enjoy the kinesthetic stimulation of the variety of textures. I like the first theory better though. Old high school costumes are a bit macabre; every perspiration stained suit jacket and torn, abandoned prom dress, each worn-out character shoe and corroded satin cocktail hat, was once worn by the exhausted, hormonal ball of energy which is the teen thespian during show week, kids like me: self involved and restless and desperately searching for a purpose, terrified of being insignificant. They don’t exist anymore. They’ve long since graduated and grown into more or less satisfied adults. These costumes are the ghosts of their teenage

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