Edible Flowers at The Skylight

Every so often, a script comes along in which the characters are chowing down on some non-edible item. Flowers are actually a fairly commonly eaten prop, believe it or not. I base this highly scientific conclusion on the fact that I've only been doing props for a few years, and this is not the first time this has come up. Now, in the case of flowers, there are a few options. The performer can fake the action, the performer can eat a real edible flower,...

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Boozey Resources

I asked my boss, notorious Props Director Jim Guy, to give me the names of some books that he uses as alcohol reference. For you young artisans, books are like the internet, except they are printed on paper, and it takes longer to search them. As excellent a reference as the internet is, sometimes, you just have to go straight to the horse's book.Now, I'm linking to Amazon here, but for goodness sake people, patronize your local bookstore. Please.Jim has recommended these tomes:The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Wine, Beer, Spirits, and Liqueursby Stuart...

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Mocktails!

Booze!- It's booze week here on the Fake-n-Bake blog! This week, I'll be pouring you a measure of what I know about getting people "drunk" onstage. Enjoy, and, as always, please throw in your two cents!For obvious reasons it is rarely, if ever, a good idea to give performers alcoholic beverages to drink onstage. That said, it is incredibly common for shows to involve alcoholic beverages. Luckily for us, many different things can be substituted for...

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Label-rama.

As I'm sure you've discovered, the liquid in the bottle is only part of what makes fake booze believable. Like so much of what we do, the packaging is what sells the prop. The label, the bottle, the cap, the opener, all of these things clue us in to what we're looking at. Often, the brewery or distillery (now, more often, the corporation) will have product history on their website. If you are willing to dig deeper, some companies have historians...

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Picked- Over Cheese Platter

In a recent production, the second act opens on the remains of a party. The guests have left, the bar is littered with empty cups and cans, dirty paper plates, and crumpled paper napkins. A buffet table sits in the corner, covered in trays of picked-over roast beef, bread, pasta, and cheese.The cheese platter is a good example of how dressing can make or break the prop. The most convincing part of this prop is probably the black plastic deli tray,...

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One More Cake Tutorial

Here is the last of the cake tutorials. Enjoy!...

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Cake Tutorials

Well, I promised to post some more information about how I did the piping on that little flower cake, so here it is! Special thanks to Meghan S. for her camerawork. First, How to Prepare a Pastry Bag Second, How to Pipe a Shell Border Third, How to Make an Icing Rose There is one more coming, I'll have it up as soon as technology allows. Enj...

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Penny Drinks aka Ladies Night

Well, thanks to a lovely recommendation from Mr. Eric Hart, and you lovely people, this blog has just made it's first penny! Now, don't worry, the entry on cake decorating is in the works, but I wanted to take a moment to celebrate what I hope is the first of tens and tens of pennies! What better way to celebrate this occasion than with a drink, especially one that you can't drink? When Act I ends, our actor has been dressed in drag for our amusement....

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