The idea of props refers to a group of tools. Tools, on the other hand, are utensils, instruments or tools that have some kind of utility (that is, they have a purpose).
Props are the elements that are used in television, cinema and theater to complement a staging. The props, costumes, and sets allow the performance to unfold in front of the audience.
For example: “I liked the play, although the props looked a bit bad”, “We will have to invest money in the props”, “All the props are made in the theater workshop”. A cup, a bottle, an umbrella, a mirror, a television and a suitcase can be part of the prop. The importance of these objects depends on each work: in some cases they are barely part of the set, while in others they are essential for the development of the story. A mirror can be placed on a wall without the characters paying attention to it. But it can also become essential to the plot if a character sees through him that someone is approaching with the intention of attacking him, leading to a fight scene. It is important to note that scripts generally do not require a specific type of prop, despite mentioning and describing various elements of the scenes. This opens the door to a wide range of different directors, as each can bring their own take on the story. Although there are certain limiting elements in the works, such as the time and contemporaneity of certain real historical events, the directors usually take as many licenses as they can to take their works to the stage or the big screen. This is often seen in opera, especially since the end of the last century. Faced with the decline in popularity of certain operas that have been performed hundreds of times, such as the well-known “The Barber of Seville”, “La Traviata” and “Lucia de Lammermoor”, some régisseurs (responsible for making decisions related to the image of the staging, among other fundamentals) began to opt for settings that seemed to have little in common with the text, and this divided the audience into two well-defined groups. While in some cases the differences between the props traditionally used for a play and those chosen by a revolutionary director to give it new life are not so drastic, sometimes public discontent centers on a matter of “taste”: changing the appearance. One thing is the type of clothing and the characteristics of the furniture and firearms, but too often the aesthetic is violated by presenting staging that lacks color, depth or harmony.
It is possible to distinguish between the following three types of supports: * Emphatic: in this group is everything that is essential for the plot and for its understanding by the audience. For example, the dagger with which one character kills another; * Hand or character: are all the objects that the actors must handle, such as a book, a cane or a glass of water; * scene: the elements that remain in the scene throughout a scene, or the performance as a whole. For example, a window or a lamp. In the sports field, the set of elements used by players in competitions and training sessions is known as props: shirts, cleats, balls, etc. The person in charge of caring for and managing these elements is useful to each team.
