The last Cyrano prop was absolutely frivolous and just for my own satisfaction. There's a bit in the play where a book of poetry is ripped up to be made into paper cones for baked goods. We've gone to the trouble of making a ton of the paper cones for use at consessions - just plain letter-sized printer paper in a warm ivory color, with a bunch of 17th century French poetry I hunted down online printed in an old font that looks like the product of a 17th-century press. Some of those same cones get used as props, so the audience is getting to see the thing they just got with their pastry also used on stage. It's one of MANY sweet little immersive touches in this production. To save time, I just bought a plain sketchbook and painted the exterior for use as the prop, but the interior pages are WHITE and very clearly have nothing printed on them, to anyone paying attention (yes, I know it is a very small subset of the audience that pays this kind of attention, but these are the kinds of details that keep me up at night). I've been facinated by book binding for a long time, and learned the basics in theory, but never really had a good excuse to try my hand at it. Well... the excuse finally arrived. I printed out the next batch of cone pages, pulled together the cardboard, thread, glue, and fabric from my various stashes at home, and cut down two manilla folders out of a combination of laziness and fear that I'd need to reinforce that particular joint because HOLY CRAP I'M MAKING A PROP BOOK IN TWO DAYS WHEN I'VE NEVER MADE A BOOK BEFORE. It turned out to be a great exercise in working *efficiently* (not just *quickly*, but also *thoughtfully*, to avoid wasting time with mistakes), and being ok with some ugliness. The inside of the cover is a MESS, but the audience will never see that. They'll see a pretty cover, they'll see paper that matches the paper in their hands (some of the pages went straight out of the book and into the basket at consessions), and they'll see an actor rip that paper right out of the book and make the cone right there in front of them. I am stupidly happy with this build. #adventuresinprops #newskill #propbuild #bookbinding #cyrano https://www.instagram.com/p/B2KuGnhF1Bz/?igshid=zoph73976j6l