My all-time favorite production that I worked on at NYTW was Far Away, the Caryl Churchill play directed by Stephen Daldry in the fall of 2002. Working with an extraordinary team – playwright, director, set designer, designers, stage manager and cast – could have been enough. But, the play’s third act in which 35 prisoners entered upstage while wearing Philip Treacy hats with their feet chained together was a shocking final tableau to this play’s Armageddon story.

In the first act, two actors, Marin Ireland and Chris Messina, sat at a workbench building hats – the finished versions to appear later in the third act on prisoners’ heads. The millinery construction had to be realistic, for which the show’s actual milliner was called into rehearsal. Stephen also required the construction to be loud, using tools like saws, hammers, drills, and hair dryers that were noisy – tools which weren’t used so much in millinery. The milliner and I had a task figuring all this out! I loved that Stephen wanted the loudest tools. I was so used to directors not wanting any ambient noise masking actors’ voices, so it was a treat auditioning drills, saws, and hair dryers for loudness!

In the third act, the play needed 35 volunteers to be prisoners. Jim [Nicola] and Lynn [Moffat] suggested that NYTW staff might participate as the prisoners. So, I signed up and joined the regulars, board members, and others. Secretly, I wanted to wear Treacy’s hats and found it an amazing experience (except for the clanging of chains) making our way from 4th Street, through the [Administrative Offices’] Gallery and up the backstage stairs before entering on stage.

- Tessa Dunning, Propsmaster (NYTW: Usual Suspect, Former Propsmaster)