here’s why i like my job: i get to send emails like this one to my professional network (and get a half dozen similar emails from other production managers daily):

Hello Friends —

Okay here’s a tricky one for you. We are looking for a stage blood recipe. Here’s what the stuff needs to do: an actor with a pitcher of blood, standing at the top of a staircase, pours blood (via a funnel) into a hole drilled into a railing made of 1″ steel box tube. The blood runs through the railing and out the end of the railing, where it splatters into the floor and onto an actor’s hands. There is some risk of costume-splatter, though not too much. Intermission happens right afterward, so there’s a good window for clean up of the actors’ hands and stage floor.

My TD is pushing for something oil-based, so as not to rust out the inside of the steel railing (this has to be done 8 times per week for 5 weeks). My costume designer, understandably, is pushing for something water-based that will wash better if it gets onto costumes. The matter of how to mop it up off the stage floor is a consideration, too. The stage surface is mahogany-painted wood treatment, so there isn’t too much concern about risk of color staining on the stage floor. It doesn’t go near the actor’s mouth/nose/eyes, so edibility isn’t an issue.

It should be fairly thin, so that it runs through the railing easily, so we’re leaning away from corn-syrup based recipes that have the usually-desirable viscosity. But it needs to be thick enough that the color really pops on the actor’s hands (so, something more than red food coloring and water).

Any ideas, favorite blood recipes? Previous experience with bleeding scenery?