Here's a conundrum for all of you.
We are doing the show Big Love. During one point in the show, the actors go under the tall platform jutting downstage, pull curtains closed and essentially take a blood shower under tubing running from a sump pump. We have thought of many ways to try and clean this up (we estimate using about 3-5 gallons of homemade blood a night), but all our ideas can't work for one reason or another.
Ideas we've thought of:
- A bin to catch the blood. Issue: The actors will be silhouetted under the platform so adding something after the curtain is closed is out of the question.
- Absorbant carpet/fabric that we can wash each night. Issue: Our lack of ability to wash something that big and this effect isn't at the end of the show, so actors still need to use that space as an entrance without tracking blood everywhere.
- Cutting slits in the platform they stand on and letting the blood collect in something underneath. Issue: There are legs in the center of the platform, so the bin would not be all encompassing and the actors are all in bare feet, so we can't have slits cut in the plywood for safety reasons.
- Dropcloth. Issue: Again, getting it out there with the silhouette wouldn't work, plus it would be noisy and difficult to clean-up.
There is a picture of the set below. I don't have a good closeup shot of the area in question (Pride Rock, as we call it), but it's the tall platform downstage center with a ramp down to the deck.
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
We are doing the show Big Love. During one point in the show, the actors go under the tall platform jutting downstage, pull curtains closed and essentially take a blood shower under tubing running from a sump pump. We have thought of many ways to try and clean this up (we estimate using about 3-5 gallons of homemade blood a night), but all our ideas can't work for one reason or another.
Ideas we've thought of:
- A bin to catch the blood. Issue: The actors will be silhouetted under the platform so adding something after the curtain is closed is out of the question.
- Absorbant carpet/fabric that we can wash each night. Issue: Our lack of ability to wash something that big and this effect isn't at the end of the show, so actors still need to use that space as an entrance without tracking blood everywhere.
- Cutting slits in the platform they stand on and letting the blood collect in something underneath. Issue: There are legs in the center of the platform, so the bin would not be all encompassing and the actors are all in bare feet, so we can't have slits cut in the plywood for safety reasons.
- Dropcloth. Issue: Again, getting it out there with the silhouette wouldn't work, plus it would be noisy and difficult to clean-up.
There is a picture of the set below. I don't have a good closeup shot of the area in question (Pride Rock, as we call it), but it's the tall platform downstage center with a ramp down to the deck.
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.