Aurora’s Paramount Theatre is known nationally for their Broadway-sized performances. But there are hundreds more faces working behind the Playbill that you may not have seen before.

Many hands make the Paramount shine, and the hands of Properties Director Aimee Plant brings each show’s setting to life through props.

Properties, or “props,” are the objects actors use in a production. “The easiest distinction between props and scenic is if you’re moving into a house, a prop is something you’re going to put on the moving truck, but scenic would be something the house came with,” explains Plant. “So, all of your furniture, all of your pots and pans, all of those are props. But the walls and such are scenic.”

Known for their larger-than-life scale (what they call “Paramount-sized”), the props department have been responsible for all sorts of wacky items throughout the years. Take the enormous 30-inch-long stuffed cod made for “Come From Away,” for example!

For their current show “South Pacific,” Plant is super excited for audiences to see their new array of oddities.

“Our directors had this idea where our characters make shrunken heads out of dried oranges to sell to tourists. If we didn’t have a 3D printer, we probably would have sculpted them. But instead, I printed them and then melted them some more to make them look a little different. I think they’re going to be super cool, and we’re making about 70 of them, so it will be really impactful,” says Plant.

Outside of props, Paramount’s costume shop helps set the scene through the medium of clothing. Under the direction of Costume Director Matt Guthier, every Paramount costume is perfectly tailored and fully thought out before it hits the stage, from the mockup drawings to fittings.

And one of the most important aspects is color. “The designer will set the color palette strongly. That’s the part that I pay most attention to, because it’s important to see how all the colors blend together,” says Guthier. “If needed, you’ll generally sacrifice period for color because our audience is so far away that we can get away with a detail not being correct.”

That being said, the costume department has worked tirelessly for “South Pacific” to ensure every uniform fits World War II standards. “All four branches of the military are represented at some point in the show, so the challenge was finding the correct items: all the patches, the medals that signify rank, uniform style, and what year it came in all play a part,” says Guthier. In fact, there are a select number of pieces that are actually from that era, including a set of Navy dress uniforms donated by a local donor.

There are so many moving parts in a musical, but every aspect of a Paramount show is completed with the utmost precision and care. Don’t miss your chance to see the props and costumes live as the Paramount presents their rendition of “South Pacific” from now until June 14.