Lori Harrison
Lori Harrison
SESSION #5: Dead Man Walking
FEATURING: Lori Harrison, Master of Properties (2000), Property Department 1985-2024
Interview conducted by: Dr. Clifford (Kip) Cranna, Dramaturg Emeritus, 06/25/2025
(transcript read time ~ 12 minutes)
LORI HARRISON [LH]: Good morning. My name is Lori Harrison. My role with the San Francisco Opera for the past, oh, couple decades was as the head of the Properties Department. My connection to Dead Man Walking was as the Prop Master. I was responsible for getting ahold of and procuring and building -- with the crew, of course -- all of the props and furniture for Dead Man Walking.
Kip Cranna [KC]: And I’m Kip Cranna. I’m called Dramaturg Emeritus nowadays at San Francisco Opera, and I have some questions for you, Lori. Before we talk about getting the world premiere of Dead Man Walking up and running from a properties standpoint, can you say a little bit about how you came to work at San Francisco Opera in the first place?
LH: Wow. Well, I moved to San Francisco more or less with the thought of staying in one place for a long time. In the opera world, you tend to move from season to season, all over the country, and I think I just had this sense that I didn’t want to do that for the rest of my life. So I picked a city, with some odd information from people, and thought, okay, I’m going to move someplace and then see what happens. And having been in the opera world, I knew some folks, and managed to get a job not doing props, like I usually do -- it was a union position, and I was not in the IA at the time, so --
KC: IA meaning the International Alliance of --
LH: The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. So I first worked as an assistant stage manager -- they were called production assistants at the time -- and I moved over to the Technical Department as a drafts person. And I, in the meantime, was keeping an eye on what was happening onstage, and how people were doing things, and made the step toward what I usually do, which is more stagehand work, and started working onstage through the union, so...
KC: And how did you become Property Master? That’s a big job, running a big department.
LH: I had been Prop Master at Miami Opera. I had done prop running at Santa Fe Opera. Chataqua Opera, I was the Prop Master. These were all sort of non-union positions in those companies, so by the time I came here I was kind of looking forward to doing that, once I was allowed to, once I was actually working through Local 16. So I did all kinds of jobs in other venues, and got to know more people, and by the time the Prop Master... I got onto the prop crew after a couple years, worked in the scene shop for a season, so when Doug Von Koss [Prop Master] retired I put in an application.
KC: So this was, in some ways, a logical next step for you, in terms of the experience you had.
LH: It was. I actually had taken a few years off, during which I worked movies, so I did set deco on movies and props on movies, and some work at ILM [Industrial Light & Magic] in the model shop. I kind of worked all around the city. And what I really wanted to do in movies was probably Jane Austen movies, and Charles Dickens movies, and all the period stuff, and that’s not what they do in San Francisco. San Francisco is full of Nash Bridges, and cops-and-robbers things, and I realized when that prop job came open at the Opera that if I wanted to do period work I’d say it’s the best game in town, but I think it really is the only game in town. (laughs)
KC: Doing traditionally in-period productions.
LH: Mm-hmm.
KC: [00:04:55] The props crew, and I would say the whole stage crew, is a fairly macho world, mostly guys, although some women are involved now, probably fewer when you were first getting started. What was it like to suddenly be in charge?
LH: There were, indeed, fewer women at the time, and I think I was the first woman department head, certainly in the Opera House, of either the Opera Company or the Ballet Company. I don’t think I had a sense of having to prove anything; I think I’d sort of done that in the other positions.
I’ve learned, mostly from going from place to place, and working in a field where there are many men, that you can’t tell anybody what you can do; you just have to do it. And that’s the method that I adopted. I will say that there are some styles that are pretty hierarchical, or certainly were at the time, and so my style was different from, you know, the who’s in charge, and they order people around. (laughs) It took quite a few years to sort of come up with a more teamwork style.
KC: More collaborative.
LH: More collaborative style of management, that eventually I think more departments actually do use.
KC: I can probably corroborate that, in terms of my experience on the administrative side. When I first came along, it was very much a top-down sort of generalissimo-in-charge sort of operation. Obviously much more cooperative and collaborative now. Let’s talk about Dead Man Walking. Michael Yeargan, the designer, had done quite a few things with us before this show in 2000. What was it like working with him? I presume he designed the props, as well as the scenery.
LH: He did. He’s a fabulous designer, and a fabulous person. Talk about collaborative. (laughs) He really does work with people. He’ll look at what we find as part of a team. And we’ve worked on many shows since then, and he’s got to be one of my favorite designers. He’s just wonderful to work with.
KC: He, of course, designed our very successful production of The Ring of the Nibelung, with Francesca Zambello as director, the famous American Ring, so he’s well known here at San Francisco Opera.
LH: That’s correct.
KC: The period for Dead Man Walking is the 1980s, talking about period pieces. What does that entail, from a property standpoint?
LH: You know, in the 2000, or 1999, which is likely when we started really working on it, that just doesn’t seem very old. (laughter) But certain kinds of furniture really aren’t around. You often think that that’s the stuff you’re easily going to find at thrift stores, (laughs) and used furniture places, and for some of it that was the case, but... I mean, certainly some of these things are so specialized, because they’re in a prison environment, and so I imagine that things in prisons didn’t really change very much over the decades.
KC: What was an example of a challenge that you had in finding something historically accurate for the ‘80s?
LH: Cars. We had to get two cars, one of which was the convertible that the initial murders took place around, or in, I guess.
KC: That’s right, the teenagers sort of skinny-dipping, and then they’ve got the car radio going while they’re making love.
LH: Right, right. So finding a convertible that was a period convertible, that had the macho feel, that a pair of ’80s teenagers would be driving around. As it turns out, what we found was, I think, a 1969 Camaro convertible, which has become very highly collectible, and I think at the time it probably was sort of collectible.
KC: Do we still have it?
LH: No. No, we had to get rid of quite a few vehicles when we lost our warehouse. (laughs) That’s another whole story.
KC: Right. Well, we’ll stick with Dead Man Walking. One of the things I recall from the production is that there’s an upright piano in the second scene, where Sister Helen is teaching her hymn to the schoolkids. What did that involve?
LH: That wasn’t that hard. I think... I don’t remember specifically whether we actually were able to just get that from a thrift store, (laughs) or whether it was donated by a... I don’t remember the specific details of that. The fact is it had to be in tune enough to be onstage at an opera company, which is not the case with some pianos, but it had to also feel like it was in a church basement, and not really kept up as a premium instrument. (laughs)
KC: Just an ordinary challenge for a prop master.
LH: Yeah.
KC: The thing that, of course, strikes anyone who sees that show is the death machine that basically is the centerpiece of the final moments of the opera. Our prisoner, Joseph De Rocher, is put to death by lethal injection. Can you say a little bit about this machine? Is it something that you created?
LH: Yes, we built it. It just so happened that we had a production of Streetcar Named Desire from a couple years before that --
KC: Also designed by Michael Yeargan.
LH: -- also designed by Michael Yeargan -- which was being used in New Orleans at the same time. They had rented that set. And I went with that show to New Orleans, which meant that I was right there in Louisiana, and so I made use of that time, and took a side trip to Angola, to the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. And I had to make all kinds of arrangements to be able to do that, to be able to take a tour. [Suzanne Stasevich?], our wardrobe mistress, was also there with Streetcar Named Desire, and went with me, and I only found out recently (laughs) that she was really not wanting to do that, but she was game, and she accompanied all of the visits.
And so we did a kind of a regular tour -- I took a lot of pictures of the facility -- but, of course, that also meant visiting death row, and visiting their execution chamber, of which I took many pictures, including of the real execution table that they used. Took a whole bunch of pictures, took a whole bunch of measurements, and we recreated it down to the inch, every strap, every piece of metal. It was exactly what had been at that state penitentiary. On our crew, John Del Bono was our master welder at the time, so he pretty much built that table.
KC: One of my distinct memories -- and there are photographs of this -- is that after the prisoner is strapped to this table, with his arms out straight to the sides, he’s lifted upright, sort of like he’s on a cross. Is it actually done that way? Do you know?
LH: It is actually done that way. That table did move into exactly that position. They roll it in front of a big plate glass window. The other side of the plate glass window are chairs. Anybody that wants to, the family of the victim is invited to sit on that side. There’s a curtain that they open up, and it’s mic-ed, and he’s allowed to give his final words, or apologies, or whatever it is that he wants to say, so that the family can actually witness that execution, and that he has a chance to make whatever amends he can at that point.
KC: That’s exactly, of course, what happens in the opera. Quite a dramatic moment toward the end there.
LH: It is. (laughs)
KC: Now, there’s this machine that is apparently administering the doses. We don’t see a nurse or anything like that injecting him. Can you say a little bit about this death machine?
LH: The machine was designed by Michael Yeargan, and it had little, glass syringes that were visible on it, so it looked like it was operated from... There’s a room next to the room in which that table operated. And I’m not seeing that I have photographs of the real injection machine. I know that in order to have him giving his final words, the way that his family would see them, they didn’t want that. And so I’m pretty sure that machine was designed, that the injection machine was designed, and it did have the capabilities of watching the liquids get lesser as they were theoretically going into the arm of the convicted. (laughs)
KC: Yes, as I recall, it happens three times.
LH: There are three injections.
KC: We hear compressor sounds, as if this liquid is being pushed into the veins of the convicted criminal.
LH: I was looking at my notes, because I took copious notes, as well as measurements, but I hadn’t seen them since then, so I haven’t had a chance to look at it, but it very clearly shows that there are three solutions, and the timing of those injections, that was explained to me when I was there.
KC: And this all happens in complete silence, otherwise. There’s no music. Some critics sort of pointed that out to composer Jake Heggie, asking him if he was unable to write music for this, and he responded that he didn’t think we needed any death music, (laughter) that we’d heard enough already, and so it’s quite a scene unfolding in silence. Do you recall what that was like for the crew, to be watching?
LH: I know that in the moments leading up to that silence, there is an exceptionally moving piece of music. I believe it was the Lord’s Prayer that was being sung in many parts harmony. And when I first saw that, in the rehearsal hall, from afar, in street clothes, and a piano, just going through that the first time, I was crying. (laughs) So the silence thereafter makes a difference.
KC: I remember well, also, that the priest begins it, and then everyone chimes in. It becomes this almost tumultuous outpouring of sound as the prisoner is being escorted from his cell to the death chamber. We get this very forceful iteration of the Lord’s Prayer. What was your feeling about the show when opening night came? Were you anticipating a hit, or did you have some doubts?
LH: I was definitely anticipating a hit.
KC: What made you so sure?
LH: The fact that it was so moving, just to the people who were working on it. It’s hard to predict, particularly with fairly modern operas, (laughs) but that one was just so emotional to everybody involved with it that it was clearly going to have the same effect on an audience.
KC: Now, this production that you worked so hard on, has it been seen anywhere else besides San Francisco?
LH: I don’t believe so.
KC: Did it, perhaps, go to Australia? I know the show was done in Australia shortly after it was done here.
LH: Was it the same production? Did we ship that out?
KC: I think so.
LH: Okay.
KC: I can’t verify that for sure. We’ll have to double check that.
LH: Yeah, yeah. That would make sense. It may have gone there and then come back, and then it sat for a long time. I know we had the props that were in it for a long time. But yeah, that was a long time ago.
KC: So you didn’t travel with the show anywhere else.
LH: No, I didn’t go with the show. Generally, only a carpenter will go with the show when the set is used elsewhere.
KC: Well, I remember the New Zealander Teddy Tahu Rhodes sang some of the performances as the prisoner, and he did it in Australia, as well. I’ve seen video of that, so perhaps that was the same production.
LH: A-ha, okay. It must have been the same one. I know that when Opera Parallel was doing Dead Man Walking, a different production, we provided that death machine for them, and I understand that it is coming back to us.
KC: All right, so the death machine refuses to die.
LH: You know, there were some other things in the process of kind of coming up with that. I think we did also contact movie people that had... I think there was an episode of The West Wing that had an execution in it, that had a table. There was another prison movie that had one. And I remember actually having to dig up personnel from these various film companies to see what they had that was available before we ended up building our own. It was a process. And ours, in order to make it stand up, it involved making sure that the singer was safe, that he really was strapped in, and that he wasn’t going to slide anywhere, and that the table was moving, and that it wouldn’t flop back, and that it was locked in place in all of its positions. And so the guards that were putting him into that position had to be prop people, they had to be stagehands, to make sure that that was absolutely as safe as it could be. And one of them was John Del Bono, who built the table. The other was Steve O’Reilly.
KC: So it had to be done by the professionals to make sure it was right.
LH: Yeah, yeah, to make sure it was right, and mostly to make sure it was safe.
KC: Have you seen the show anywhere else besides at San Francisco Opera?
LH: I haven’t.
KC: Well, you’ll be seeing it again before long.
LH: That’s right. Looking forward to it.
KC: Anything else we should cover, do you think?
LH: There was that second car. We used a car that belonged to someone that was on the crew that was getting rid of a car. (laughs) Since then, we’ve done a lot of cars, but at the time it was a really big deal, and that convertible we ended up locating in Michigan, and it had to be shipped over. I think I may still have the original Michigan plates somewhere in prop world. Let’s see, cars, piano... When we were in New Orleans, we did visit Sister Helen’s church. The furniture, of course, was period furniture. The interior of the car we built using car seats and a steering wheel. Coke machine. We needed a Coke machine, and there was, in fact, a Coke machine in that waiting room at the Louisiana State Penitentiary.
KC: That’s all based on an actual episode in Sister Helen’s life. She tells about it in her book. She was under such stress, and so exhausted, and hadn’t had anything to eat, that she actually fainted at the prison, causing quite a ruckus, and stirred up a bit of resentment (laughs) on the part of the officials there, so that ending of act one is her fainting while she’s trying to get a Coke out of the machine. It’s quite a central moment in the opera.
LH: Yeah, yeah. I think we ended up with a kind of a bank of vending machines. I don’t think it was just the Coke machine. I think we had two or three, and we had... And all of these things, of course, we had to make operate onstage. We had to make the car drivable, maneuverable onto its spot, and ramps to get it to where it would store, and getting the Coke machines in such a way that they could be moved on and off, because there were a lot of scenes that happened in a big hurry.
KC: Did you have any interaction with Jake, or with Patrick Summers, or beyond the design team and the crew, if other, like the composer, ever checked in with props about how things were going. Or with the director, Joe Mantello, who was doing his first opera.
LH: Definitely with the director. We always have a lot to do with the director. A lot of propping happens during the rehearsal process, and so if we were to fully prop everything before rehearsals even start, then we’d have a problem, because we have to make sure that artists can work with what we provide. You know, over time things do change. Ideas come up. We have to be able to react to the needs of the performers as they get through the rehearsal. So we work with directors very closely. And the Prop Department does handle the orchestra pit in San Francisco. We handle the instruments when they go to rehearsal halls and things like that. So we have a little bit more to do with the maestri and the composers, but I don’t remember anything specific coming of that show.
KC: One of my other strong memories is Sister Helen’s journey, as she calls it, her aria she sings as she’s driving to Angola State Prison to meet this prisoner for the first time. In this production, she didn’t actually have a car; she appeared to be driving.
LH: Well, that was our kind of car interior, which was made up of two car seats, and a little console, and a steering wheel, so that she was hanging onto the steering wheel while she was driving.
KC: And she gets stopped for speeding while she’s doing all that.
LH: That’s right, so we did have to get research of... We got actual Louisiana speeding tickets (laughs) that we could put on a pad to be handed to her. We were as authentic as we could possibly be. There was quite a bit written, and, of course other research that exists, like the movie that had been made already, and things that had been written by the -- interviews with the parents of the victims, who are characters in the opera. And so getting that... I’m sure Cathy [Cook] will have a lot more to say about that, (laughs) but we were really careful to provide, to have present all of these interviews, and that’s where you get clues as to who they are, and what they would have in their purses, and what... (laughs) There’s a lot of detail involved.
And for a recent show like that, that has so much written -- we’re not limited to paintings of the era, (laughs) and guesses. We have a lot of very specific stories that those characters told of their lives. And so I do a lot of that kind of research, just reading everything I can about the incident, and the follow-up of the incident. This was one of the -- no, it was probably the second of my trips to the authentic location of where an opera was taking place. I had done that for Louise; I went to Montmartre to kind of research. Eventually, I went to Nuremburg, when we did Meistersinger. (laughs) I went to Beijing when we did --
KC: Nixon in China.
LH: -- Nixon in China. No, no...
KC: Bonesetter’s Daughter.
LH: Bonesetter’s Daughter. (laughs) It wasn’t very useful for that particular production, but the other ones really were. And this one, you have to do it right. You have to... There are too many people that remember it (laughs) to lie about it, or try to fake the furniture, or the costumes. People remember what they wore. They remember what... They remember the story itself.
KC: So even if the average person in the audience doesn’t appreciate all the research and work that’s gone into a developing historical production, there’s always going to be somebody who knows whether it’s right or not.
LH: Yeah. You know, I think -- and I don’t have any record of this, unfortunately, but -- the Opera Company got a letter from a very angry patron, who felt that they were turning this criminal into a Christlike figure by upping the table and having him hanging there -- with his arms extended. And somehow, someone sent that letter to me, and I had to kind of carefully craft a response, which I did send, and I thought I sent it to either the box office or wherever the... I don’t know where it ended up, and I don’t still have that letter, which I really wish that I did still have, because it took some doing to answer. And I talked about how I went to the penitentiary and took photographs and measurements, and that that was exactly the table, and that this was exactly what he did, that the only real liberties that we took were theatrical liberties, of perhaps not having the sickly green in the room, and the faded, grungy curtains that opened, and the sordid, dirty window, and the linoleum of the floor, and the folding chairs, and that kind of reality. You know, we’re able to sort of turn the lights down (laughs) around the rest of it, and that we, perhaps, were guilty of that, but not of the significance of the position of the person on that table.
KC: So all your research was very useful in a situation like that.
LH: Yeah. We get letters, apparently, from people who object to the number of stars on a flag, and so we really have to make sure that if this opera is taking place in XYZ year that our flags have the correct number of stars on them, (laughs) and are the flags of that period.
That Streetcar Named Desire set that we took to New Orleans, I was petrified, because, I mean, here we were in New Orleans, and they would know if the dressing and props that we’d sort of come up with were real, or whether they weren’t. I mean, the fact that we found brands and cans, and we totally dressed this thing out, with the best research I could come up with, but, of course, I’m not from New Orleans... And I can’t tell you, as we started to dress that set, and put that stove together, and the little grease tin, and the stuff on the windowsill, and all the weird, little things that we did to make that kitchen look lived in, when the crew was saying, “This looks just like my grandmother’s kitchen,” I mean, it was so... (laughs)
KC: Gratifying.
LH: Gratifying, yeah. It was, wow, we did it. (laughs) We made New Orleans.
KC: I imagine you found a very historically accurate Coke bottle for the scene where she has Coke in her drink.
LH: We certainly did. We certainly did, and in looking through the notes from rehearsals, there was a... You know, we have to make the Coke bottle openable, and pourable, and, like, oh, okay. I mean, whatever period bottle we had, we had done that.
KC: The challenges are unending for a prop master.
LH: Yeah.
KC: Lori Harrison, thanks so much for talking with us.
LH: You’re very welcome.