News - Carnegie Mellon University: Wearing white coveralls while standing in front of plastic-covered shelves on each wall of the props department in the Purnell Center for the Arts, Arden Zemler Wu placed a capsule filled with fake blood into their mouth, then snapped it with their teeth so the gooey mixture oozed past their lips.
5 comments:
Prop blood is so cool! I’ve never looked deep into the making of it, but I think it would be so interesting to get to learn. I wonder if the viscosity of it would have to change depending on where the audience is in relation to the performers. For example, a theatre in the round would have the audience much closer to the performer than a large proscenium production. Does the blood then have to look closer to real blood for it to be effective? Likewise, if a show is in a large venue, should the blood be thicker than normal blood in order to read from the audience? I wonder how much experimentation goes into the making of the blood if the viscosity does have to change. I imagine it would be quite a bit since every situation would have a slightly different viscosity need. I would also be curious to know if there are union rules around the use of fake blood, similar to the ones that exist for food being eaten onstage.
I’ve heard a lot about the college program, but I think this is by far, the best lesson I have read about. Fake blood is always super fascinating to learn about, it is just so cool. Like in Sweeney Todd, all the use of fake blood is just to fun and so cool to watch happen. They go through GALLONS of blood every show, and I was so eager to learn how they did it, so I wanted the explanation video from the broadway run of the musical. Anyway, I think it is so cool that the summer program had this section where students learned to make fake blood for props and such, it just is really so cool. It adds another level to theatre, that makes shows so realistic and scary. I hope that I can work with fake blood sometime throughout my career, and I would be so interested in learning how to properly make fake blood for the stage.
It's really cool to see news about CMU here. I have heard quite a bit about the pre-college program here and I know many theatre students who did some sort of pre-college program elsewhere, myself included. I think in theatre specifically, these programs are really important to help validate students' belief that this is their passion and the path they want to pursue in school. Going to school for drama isn't necessarily conventional, and it feels like a risky option that most people don't want to commit to when they don't have some sort of confirmation that it is a good choice. But a pre-college program helps you to get the feel for what it's like to go to school for theatre, and it gives you the opportunity to talk to current students and professors about their experiences and what paths are available when you pursue this option. I remember leaving my pre-college program leaning much more towards going to college for theatre than I was when I started.
While a lot of these articles I choose to read tend to be more widely applicable, this one about CMU Drama really drew my attention. I have heard so so so much about the Pre-College Program and honestly, I wish I would have known about it when I was in high school. I can’t even imagine six weeks being exposed to the craziest, realest, exciting things of theatre as a high schooler. I also have always wondered about prop blood. How exactly does it work? I always thought it was something you would just order up in bulk, but now I realized that it is all made in house. The fact that a gallon is used every show for some productions is crazy cool. I wonder how that adds to the stress, cleanliness, and organization of a show. In my high school I didn’t have a lot of opportunities and have never had the chance to use fake blood. I hope this is something I can see and do during my time here at CMU!
Prop blood is really cool, and it is interesting to see all that goes into making it. Not just what goes into the mixture to actually make the blood, but the considerations one needs to make when using fake blood on stage.
The costumes have to be ready for the next show, which is sometimes the next day, and other times about only three hours after the last one finishes. So you would either have to make the costumes very easily washable or you would need several so that the performers can look fresh every night. You also have to make sure that the stage is able to be cleaned and not stain when the blood gets on it. I remember going to a makeup workshop at Colorado Thescon last year and the speaker went really in depth talking about blood. Although a lot of it was an add for HIS fake blood that he was selling. But he did make some interesting points about the different problems that have to be solved and needing different fake bloods to solve them. My favorite was one he showed us that went on the skin as a powder and then when you brush against it with a damp weapon, it turns red and it looks like the weapon cut you. It made me realize that there is a lot of really cool technology in place for theatre specifically.
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