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General notes
Test everything wayyyy in advance. Some adjustments might have to be made to the fight choreography to accommodate blood effects (slipping people balloons, handling blood knives etc), and it's best to get these in early. Also to make sure your actors know exactly what they're doing - have them rehearse with water before the dress rehearsals, or take time out of a fight rehearsal to cover them in bin bags and try out the real stuff.
If you need people to have pockets, make sure you coordinate with costumes. While you are talking to costumes, tell them that white costumes are generally not going to stay white, even if soaked immediately and washed thoroughly. A sash to cover the area might be necessary. Or lighting can cover it.
Make sure to check what we have in the cabinet in the office before buying any new supplies.
Blood Recipes
For tricky scenes with a lot of blood, professional blood looks a lot better. Don't forget you can also use multiple types of blood depending on what you need for a particular scene.
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Mix the two together. May turn purple overnight if you use the wrong detergent. A ratio of about 1-1.5 tsp of food coloring to 1/3 cup of detergent seems to work pretty well, but try out different amounts to see what works best.
Type 3 - Commercial
Advantages and Disadvantages (Grace Kane)
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Dramashop's 2009 production of Julius Caesar (gosh, I feel old...) - shop-bought fake blood was purchased by Theatre arts by the gallon. In that production, all the consiprators stabbed Ceasar one-by-one with very simple blood knifes that we made. A little tube came up through the platform that Casar fell onto, and an offstage techie pumped blood through it so it seeped out from under Caesar and made a big pool of blood by the end of the scene.
For R&J (2016), we used plastic bag blood packs of the non-edible kind for Mercutio, Tybalt, Paris, and Juliet's deaths.
Warnings
The blood will not be visible from the audience under a lot of red light.
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