Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1536054
28 PROP CULTURE I SUMMER 2025 season of Duster that held a particular significance for you? LATOYA MORGAN: There are so many! Like I said, creating cereal. We created our own cigarettes. We created this incredible board game, a throwback to the '70s called, "Oh No Armadillo," and it's only featured in a couple of scenes, but it was just so fun to create that stuff. I love all the weapons that everybody uses. You know, especially in one of the later episodes, we have a special weapon that one of the characters who's an assassin uses, and just the mountain of conversations we had about this was incredible because it had to be wearable, it had to be concealed. Sometimes I like the simplest things, like the badges. Maybe it's because I'm such an X-Files fan, but I always love the opening of The X-Files with the FBI badges, and just creating Nina's badge was incredible. For Nina, she is a woman in a man's world. She's a newcomer in this FBI realm. We have to make sure that, of course, the gun and holster are period-correct and then the questions of size and how it fits Rachel, who plays Nina. You don't want a giant gun that's going to overwhelm her. It's a process involving much discussion across many departments. It's a collaborative effort, with input from costumes, props, and sometimes our own department as well, to ultimately style and design the right look for a particular character in a particular moment. PROP CULTURE: You mentioned that you love all the weapons that the characters use. LATOYA MORGAN: Yeah, absolutely. Making sure everyone is safe and that everyone's taken care of is number one. Number two, I always like for weapons to feel like extensions of the character. So, a character like Jim is not going to have the same weapon as a character like Billy, and they don't. So, for Billy, since he's such a Clint Eastwood type, we gave him a .44 Magnum, and that felt right for a character like him. So, for me, it's not enough to just have a prop for prop's sake. When you cross the streams in the best possible way is when the prop meets character, and they tell their own story. I'm genuinely excited for the world to see the fantastic work our entire crew and wonderful cast have done. PROP CULTURE: Moving on to TURN: Washington's Spies, another detailed period piece you worked on, could you share your experience working on that show and essentially stepping back in time to that era? LATOYA MORGAN: Oh, TURN was so much fun! Spending four years immersed in the Revolutionary War was incredible. The biggest thing for me was the sheer amount of research we had to do about the times. There were so many different factions involved—Washington and his Continental Army, the British Army, John André and his spy network, Rogers' Queen's Rangers… PROP CULTURE: Given the difficulty of finding appropriate props for a period piece like TURN, set 250 years ago so that extensive custom creation is often necessary, are you consistently amazed by the resourcefulness and ingenuity of a talented Property Master? LATOYA MORGAN: Absolutely! Property Masters are geniuses, bottom line. I'm constantly amazed at what they can create and how they manage to source those hard-to-find and rare items to bring these incredible shows to life. I have such deep respect for how resourceful and creative they are. The depth of their knowledge and their connections is just off the charts. We also had an incredible Property Department on that show. Kelly Farrah was our Property Master, and he was truly fantastic. PROP CULTURE: Do you ever step back during the course of a show like TURN or Duster and just think, "I am so glad I'm not the Property Master." LATOYA MORGAN: (Laughs) Oh, definitely! Especially during the bigger TURN: WASHINGTON'S SPIES