Presenter Profile

Jay Duckworth

Guest Artist, Colorado State University

Jay Duckworth – Properties Master from The Public Theatre in New York City, will appear at Humboldt State University as a guest of the Department of Theatre, Film, & Dance. Jay will host a workshop at 1pm in Gist Hall Theatre on October 13, 2018 entitled “Blood, Guts & Props…a Tale as Old as Time” – warning: you may get a little messy! Seating is limited and preferential seating goes to current HSU students with a valid ID, followed by students from local area high schools and College of the Redwoods, then followed by interested community members. This is a unique treat for a master class by a master “proptologist” working on Broadway coming to our little corner of the world. Jay boasts over 20 years’ experience in LORT & Off-Broadways theatre, independent films, TV, music videos and over 65 off Broadway shows credit his name as a Props Master and Props Designer. The roll call of shows for which he has created original work, starts in Classic Greek Theater, re-imagined Shakespeare plays as well as being part of the artistic team that created musicals including Hamilton, Fun Home, Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson and the highly controversial Julius Caesar at Shakespeare in the Park 2017, at his decade residency at The Public Theater. As well as being a writer for Stage Directions Magazine, he teaches Properties and the Philosophy of Aesthetics at Pace University. He has been the Keynote Speaker for The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival and the United States Institute of Theater Technology, curating USITT's very first Prop Lab in 2018.

Jay's Workshops


    40 Feet of Blood!

    , Intermediate, Advanced / Acting, , Musical Theatre, Tech, , / Tech

    There are only two important things one does on stage, fall in love & die. Since the beginning of the Greek tragedies people have used special effects on stage. This workshop will talk about how to do safely do blood effects from easy to more complicated. We will also talk about what materials can be put together to make different blood for different uses. You can't put a soap based blood in a persons mouth or eyes. Plus some of the blood special effects used throughout history.
    40 min presentation with a 15 min Q & A.