Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1536054
16 PROP CULTURE I SUMMER 2025 The beginning weeks of prep continued for Jamie while simultaneously rehearsals for the musical numbers began. The first song that was assigned to shoot was "Popular." During those rehearsals, the director came up with the idea to have the cast interact with all the pieces of luggage the Property Department had created in the dormitory. In that moment, Jamie realized how his props would be such an integral part of the choreography. This new direction added new challenges for the department in all performances, including the song "Dancing Through Life." "We worked closely with the special effects department to help create movement with a lot of our props. The library scene for example, took a lot of time to get the choreography right. When Fiyero [Jonathan Bailey] is on the table, he flips open three books and uses them like stepping stones. In order to achieve each of those moments, we had books that had felt on the backs, books that were made of rubber, and books that needed to be strengthened. After a day work out. He wanted to base the design on the original stage show wand, but with an update. He went through many versions of what it could be. His team molded the shaft out of pure resin and used laser-cut pieces of acrylic for the ornamentation on the tip. However, he believed it still needed another element to help elevate the design. "It was kind of getting there and when we showed it to Jon, it was his idea to put real diamonds down every edge of the acrylic pieces. Once we added them, the edges disappeared and it just became this ball of light. On a single wand, I imagine we added around 400 diamonds to it." With the help of Jon's input, the design of Glinda's wand began to shine. The collaboration between Jamie and Jon was often the case on Wicked with Jon being heavily of rehearsal, the books would just split down the spine, and we went through a lot of casualties during the first few weeks for that scene." The rehearsals continued to reveal new challenges for Jamie and his team as many of the props they created needed to have multiple backups and means of strengthening them in order to survive. During the Elphaba makeover scene, Jamie recounts having to strengthen Glinda's training wand because Ariana needed to hit the wand on counters and throw it during her performance. "She was fantastic, but you can't really say, 'Don't do that. It's not designed to do that.' So overnight, we had to make new versions of her wand using a stronger resin that wouldn't shatter." While Jamie's props needed to be well constructed in order to withstand the stress they endured on set, they also needed to have the right look for the world they are a part of. He applied this approach when creating Glinda's wand, and that process took ages to THE WIZARD'S MESSENGER BALLOON THE EMERALD GUARD'S HANDGUN