"If you break a prop, that's cool. Things happen. But if you break a prop, TELL ME ABOUT IT ASAP. See, I can't fix it if I don't know it's broken. Feel guilty all you want, but assuage that guilty conscience by helping to solve the problem."
This after a vital prop was discovered shoved down behind the prop cabinet, and it had obviously been broken before being hidden. The actors who had to use it -- and who had nothing to do with breaking it-- had to go on with a hastily rigged substitute. Not pretty.
Oh, and to others using the space when we aren't there . . ..
DO NOT TOUCH OUR STUFF. I DON'T CARE HOW WIERD IT LOOKS OR HOW PERFECT IT WOULD BE FOR YOUR OWN THING. OUR STUFF IS NOT YOUR STUFF. LEAVE IT ALONE!!!!!!!
I've had more costume accessories stolen out of rented spaces -- *sigh* I know it looks pretty, but it's *ours*. Go get some Victorian hats of your own, if you really must. *grrrrrr* Or worse, I'd spent two weeks getting the (explitive deleted) director to approve the fabric for a 'death shroud' (see, this thing was a prop because it couldn't be see-through or that would ruin the plot, but the actors had to be able to see through it, and it had to be a prescribed size. . .. the costumer took one look at what was required and went 'That's a prop!!!') and when I'd *finally* gotten the death shroud approved at $18/yard of fabric, the . .. . .. church ladies went and -took- it on preview night for their own arcane and mysterious purposes. We never found it and had to cobble up a substitute that really didn't work for anything and looked like what it was, a shoddy piece of black something-or-other.
Respect the props!
Whitewater