Watch out for the beats

Sam Weaver, the prop master for the percussion and dance troupe STOMP, is kind of like a real-life MacGyver.

The group, which begins a six-day engagement at the Orange County Performing Arts Center tonight, is world renowned for making music in a visually stunning fashion using everyday household implements like trash cans, brooms and basketballs as instruments.

Weaver’s job is to procure the props for the eight-person crew that tours around the United States and make sure they make the right noises and can be easily tossed around, worn and beaten. One number, for instance, requires the performers to have a handful of five-gallon water jugs that are matched harmonically.

“I have to go to a warehouse, convince the guy to let me tap around on his water bottles for a couple of hours and bang on over 100 different bottles to find five that sound good together. Half the time they say no, but hopefully I find someone who has heard of the show, and then I have a better chance,” Weaver said.

Once the bottles are purchased, the job of making them sing falls in the hands of the performers. It’s a pretty acrobatic feat, because bottles don’t make good sounds if they are hit while being held or while sitting on the ground. The performers have to toss them back and forth, hitting them as they are airborne.

It’s not easy to imagine any sort of musical arts training that would specifically prepare a person to perform in STOMP, which is perhaps why the troupe has members with so many different backgrounds. Brad Holland, who has been with the show almost a decade, tried out after high school where he was involved in percussion and theater.

The first time he flew to New York to audition he was cut in the first round, but friends convinced him to try a second time, and he was one of 11 people selected from a field of 1,100.

Practicing for the show is like participating in a workshop led by the creators of STOMP, who fly in from England — where the show originated — to teach the cast new numbers. The last time they were in town the group learned a piece that they are bringing to Orange County where flying paint cans are the feature attraction.

“It was so aggravating. It took two weeks to learn it because as soon as we’d get one section down they would say, ‘Nah we don’t really like that,’” Holland said.

With something so dynamic, some miscues are inevitable. The group has one famous number where they bounce basketballs off the floor and walls of the auditorium in surprisingly complex rhythms. One night Holland accidentally let his fly into the crowd and hit an elderly woman in the head. (She was fine, though).

The paint-can routine is no less dangerous.

“We’ve had some black eyes during rehearsals,” Holland said.

Much of the show is improvisational, and the performers feed off the audience. Everyone in the group comes up with impromptu solos that vary depending on how interested the audience is.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: STOMP

WHERE: Segerstrom Hall, Orange County Performing Arts Center

WHEN: 7:30 tonight through Friday; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday

COST: $20 to $60

INFO: ocpac.org, (714) 556-2787

ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at alan.blank@latimes.com.