Cardboard, Latex, and a Month of Work: The Craft Behind the Music Box's Props

In the basement and lobby of the Music Box Theatre in West Town, artist Isabella Favis has spent the past year transforming flat cardboard into three-dimensional film icons. Hired seasonally a little over a year ago, Favis has become known for constructing intricate props that complement the theater's special events. Her work ranges from small handheld items to life-sized sculptures that require weeks of fabrication.

Favis, who uses she/they pronouns and is originally from central Illinois, transitioned from culinary school to DePaul University’s film program. There, she explored production design, stop-motion animation, and puppetry. Her path to the Music Box began when she and friend Yuyu Blue created promotional pins for a David Lynch festival. That interaction with events manager Matt Carr led to their joint hiring for the theater's seasonal staff.

The most ambitious piece to date is a replica of the Argonath statues from The Lord of the Rings. Favis constructed the sculpture over a one-month period using cardboard and papier-mache. She built the form by planning cross sections within a large rectangular frame, then smoothed the surface with rolled paper to mimic fabric. Coworkers assisted with the final stages of applying papier-mache and paint. The structure relies on a grid of triangles near the base and overhangs to maintain stability, a design choice Favis adopted to prevent the heavy piece from collapsing.

Other creations for the theater include a swinging mace made of cardboard and chain for a Kill Bill screening, a large katana covered in foil for a kung fu series, and a hat for a Jan Švankmajer stop-motion film. For a recent screening of The Odyssey, Favis built a hollow Trojan horse large enough to hold the theater manager inside. The prop nearly collapsed during construction, but Favis reinforced the tail section with additional support to keep it upright.

Favis is currently fabricating four puppets for a short film by Brett Neveu, based on the play Odradek. The characters evolve in size throughout the film, growing from approximately 15 inches to five feet four inches. This project requires Favis to create plaster molds and cast the figures in latex and foam, a process she has previously performed only on a small scale. She is also responsible for the character design, blending the original written description with the specific aesthetic of the film.

Favis describes her work as a process of reverse engineering, where she identifies the desired final look and works backward to determine the necessary materials and structural supports. She often studies how other films achieve similar effects but adapts those methods to fit a studio apartment budget. She notes that cardboard is forgiving and accessible, allowing for creative manipulation of texture and movement.

The artist acknowledges the physical and mental demands of the work, particularly when tackling techniques she has not used before. She cites a previous project for a Halloween event where she built a mechanical chestburster from Alien for Matt Carr to wear. That piece involved sculpting a latex and foam creature, creating a mold, and installing a spring mechanism inside a chestplate cavity. Favis says she takes breaks between major projects to ensure she is prepared to give each piece her full attention.