bobcatarts
Member
I discovered a good last-minute substitute for bullets that needed to be handled on stage.
Female stage pin brass looked pretty good, even up close, and has just the right clink when jostled together.
The festival in my venue is sharing a firearm and blank ammunition. One show needed both but not to load or fire - a character just needed to show she "stole all your bullets!" I wasn't comfortable with actors manhandling a heaping pile of live rounds on stage - nobody even counted how many.
The slightly skeptical producer asked me to explain why it was a bad idea to use the real thing as just a hand prop. I said they were each little explosive devices that could go off and cause injury if stepped on or dropped - as I accidentally dropped one from my handful of stage pins. "Just like that."
The director liked the idea, and producer agreed, and the show went on. Maybe nothing would have happened, and everything would have been returned nightly without going off or going missing. It just didn't sit right.
I would love to see any other ideas for safe substitutions I could turn to in the future.
The festival in my venue is sharing a firearm and blank ammunition. One show needed both but not to load or fire - a character just needed to show she "stole all your bullets!" I wasn't comfortable with actors manhandling a heaping pile of live rounds on stage - nobody even counted how many.
The slightly skeptical producer asked me to explain why it was a bad idea to use the real thing as just a hand prop. I said they were each little explosive devices that could go off and cause injury if stepped on or dropped - as I accidentally dropped one from my handful of stage pins. "Just like that."
The director liked the idea, and producer agreed, and the show went on. Maybe nothing would have happened, and everything would have been returned nightly without going off or going missing. It just didn't sit right.
I would love to see any other ideas for safe substitutions I could turn to in the future.