jessamarie6
Member
I am working on a Gothic play and in the second act we have a shrine onstage that "begins to bleed." The setup must be quickly assembled as the alter is moved onstage in full view at intermission. The mechanism needs to be operated from below the stage (about an 8' distance from the floor below the stage to the top of the alter where the blood needs to come out). We only need one good spurt of blood, I am assuming that it will be a little sticky and slowly drip down the back wall of the alter for the rest of the scene anyway and I don't want to be too distracting from the action.
Right now I am envisioning a tube under a lip along the top of the shrine with select holes in it, a tube extending off of that, at 90 degrees, running down the back of the shrine to the stage where it can be slipped into a hole. Another hose underneath the floor that can connect easily to the one from above and run down to the ground, and ideally a small tank that I can press on to force the blood through the tubing and out the top (I used an old 2 liter bottle for a similar effect once, but there was far less distance to travel and much lower tech needs.)
My questions- does anyone know of any sort of tubing that is sold with easily fitting joints like I need? Do you think that my pressure system will work over the long distance and against gravity or do I need to look into buying a pump? Does anyone recommend a good, quite, pump they've had success with? There won't be much insulating the audience from any sound the pump might make.
Sorry for the long post, thanks for any advice!
Right now I am envisioning a tube under a lip along the top of the shrine with select holes in it, a tube extending off of that, at 90 degrees, running down the back of the shrine to the stage where it can be slipped into a hole. Another hose underneath the floor that can connect easily to the one from above and run down to the ground, and ideally a small tank that I can press on to force the blood through the tubing and out the top (I used an old 2 liter bottle for a similar effect once, but there was far less distance to travel and much lower tech needs.)
My questions- does anyone know of any sort of tubing that is sold with easily fitting joints like I need? Do you think that my pressure system will work over the long distance and against gravity or do I need to look into buying a pump? Does anyone recommend a good, quite, pump they've had success with? There won't be much insulating the audience from any sound the pump might make.
Sorry for the long post, thanks for any advice!
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