A Christmas tree in springtime? Not a problem, if the STC Props crew is on it. But when the slate of the 2007 Spring Comedy, “The Man Who Came to Dinner,” first asked for a holiday tree, crewmembers were stumped. The season for stockings and pine trees had long passed.

“It was a little problem,” said junior Tasso Bountouvas, who was a freshman at the time. “We didn’t have anywhere to go.” After an unsuccessful search, the team eventually turned to each other and found one stuffed in an acquaintance’s closet.

Other interesting props have included a coffin, again for “Dinner,” and a chunk of rock for last spring’s “Don’t Drink the Water.” The coffin was ultimately built by the Tech Crew one hour before it was needed on stage, and the rock was swiped from the Irish Potato Famine Memorial.

The graduation of crew directors Elaine Lavin, Kate Mulhauser and Natalie Rynczak (’07) led Bountouvas and senior Ava Hecht to fill the openings last fall. About a half-dozen students (mostly juniors) now constitute the active body of the Props Crew.

“I have no problem at all with them being juniors,” Hecht said. “It’s impossible not to bond more with someone once you’ve transported large kitchen appliances through Manhattan.” Hecht was referring to an oven which was requested for “Don’t Drink the Water.”

The group’s small size results from what junior Katerina Patouri calls a lack of “taking things seriously.” Because the crew’s work blends in with the set, people tend to forget about its importance. Despite good turnouts during STC interest meetings, “very few actually come to rehearsal, because it’s so relaxed,” Patouri said.

Bountouvas is unperturbed by the number—he believes that participation is up to each person. “Personally, I feel the need to be at every rehearsal, and I want to as well, but others don’t necessarily feel that way,” he said.

The crew’s current task is supplying this year’s Fall Musical “Urinetown.” (Props isn’t supplying “And Baby Makes Seven” because studio shows don’t fall under the crew’s jurisdiction). After Bountouvas and Hecht received the list from the show’s slate, they held a meeting during one of the weekend all-day rehearsals to decide which items would be bought or made, based on the Crew’s budget of roughly 250 dollars per show.

Everyone on Props seems to enjoy the shopping treks. “It’s a great non-stress way to participate in theater,” said junior Margaret Borowczyk, who hopes to co-direct next year. “We get to go out and look for the craziest things.”

“Ava and Tasso are extremely professional,” said junior Annalise Lockhart, co-director of “Urinetown.” “They always ask us specifically what kinds of things we need, whether it’s flashlights, police clubs, or fake cigars, and they want to know exactly how we want them to look.”

Occasionally, though, an outrageous demand can only be met by a miracle. For last year’s Fall Musical “Bye Bye Birdie,” the slate requested 25 retro telephones. “We were going crazy,” Bountouvas said. “The only suitable ones we found were on eBay selling for 50 dollars.” The disappointed crew sought the help of machinist Kerneth Levigion. “The next day, we came into the closet and found a recycle bin full of phones,” Patouri said. “We didn’t know where they came from, where they had been, but the point was, Kern saved the day.”

“That’s the great thing about Props,” Patouri said. “It’s basically about having connections. You call people, you ask them for favors, even if they’re friends of friends of friends.”

Disclaimer: Ava Hecht was not involved in the writing or editing of this article.