What would account for the fact that over the course of two months this fall, Washingtonians could see beheadings on three local stages? Perhaps it was an allegory for the economy – were productions that were planned in advance, in its darkest days, also dark? Do severed-head plays come in cycles, reappearing every few years, or only around Halloween? But there's nothing to which we can attribute the prevalence of theatrical severed heads, other than macabre coincidence. However, TBD's chronicling of the prop severed heads revealed some enlightening truths about theater! Such as:

1. Prop severed heads are expensive. Most theaters could not afford to custom-mold severed heads to look exactly like the actors they are supposed to represent. The only show with truly lifelike custom severed head was the Washington National Opera's Salome, and Daniel Sumegi showed his off to Andrew Beaujon backstage, describing the process of molding plaster to his face to make his John the Baptist head. Sumegi's was so lifelike that it included pieces of a spinal cord! Which was gross. But most theaters could not afford this, so they had to resort to premade heads, or rentals. Which brings us to the next point:

2. There are not many prop severed heads available for rental in Washington. In fact, there's only one: It belongs to the Shakespeare Theatre. The Washington Shakespeare Company nabbed it for their production of Richard III, where it represented Joe Palka, who played Hastings. Synetic Theater's production of The Master and Margarita had hoped to borrow it too, but since it was in use and there were no others to spare, they had to order a new head, whih turned out to be the most unrealistic-looking of the bunch.

3. It is hard to behead an actor on stage. That's why most shows do it offstage, except for The Master and Margarita. When Chris Dinolfo's character, Berlioz, is violently beheaded in a streetcar accident, it took a body double and a magic coach, David London, to pull it off. Dinofo's head actually rolls on the ground, but Palka's character's beheading is only partially in view of the audience. The two executioners come for him, but his severed head doesn't appear until later, carried in a plastic bag.

4. Most actors whose characters are beheaded don't spend enough time with their prop severed heads. Probably because it is creepy. But each time TBD interviewed an actor about their head, they said it was the first time they had really thought about it, or been photographed next to it. Which amazed us, because if we had a model version of our own head, you can bet we'd be photographed with that thing all the time. We'd take it to parties. Daniel Sumegi did post some photos of himself with his prop severed head on Facebook, which his friends said was "disturbing." Dinolfo thought he looked nothing like his head. Palko thought his real head was sexier.