TOMMY SCHRIDER , SANS POOP, IN BATTLE OF BLACK AND DOGS LAST YEAR AT THE YALE REPERTORY THEATRE. PHOTO BY JOAN MARCUS
Ask and ye shall receive… a pile of shit. Gratefully, I should add.
On Friday I posted an item about a Yale Rep stage effect and casually mentioned that I’d love to know “the recipe for the poop that covered that poor man head-to-toe last year in Battle of Black and Dogs at Yale Rep).”
Today I received an email from Elizabeth Bolster, the Yale Rep Wardrobe Supervisor. She not only was a part of the Eurydice team but (in her words) “I
also worked on Battle of Black and Dogs last year and was the creator of the poop.”
The remarkable Ms. Bolster provides the recipe, which she euphemistically calls Sludge.
It is made in two parts: Slime and Clumps.
For 1 gallon of Slime:
2 cups Brown Crayola Washable Tempera paint.
2 cups Black Crayola Washable Tempera paint.
2 cups Baby Shampoo
10 cups Cornstarch
Mix dry into wet with electric mixer for best consistency.
For 1/2 gallon of Clumps:
6 cups Yesterdays News Kitty Litter (soaked overnight in water)
2 cups of Slime
We would pour and smear the slime all over Tommy (the actor) and then put
handfuls of the clumps here and there over the top of the slime. Tommy would
then step in a bucket of cork mixed with Fuller’s Earth to keep him from sliding
around on the plexiglass floor. Then we put on his microphone, handed him and
AK47 and sent him on his way. After Tommy came offstage he would immediately run to the shower.
It was an interesting experience and ultimately a lot of fun. And the formula has come in handy for a couple of Yale School of Drama productions this year. It was a starting point for the oil at the end of Streetcar and, I believe made some appearance in Twelfth Night. It’s a very versatile formula and easy to clean up.
That sludge-covered actor, Tommy Schrider, later resurfaced at the Rep as another unclean character (morally speaking—this one simply thought his shit didn’t stink, and wasn’t literally covered in the stuff), an adulterous teacher in Kirsten Greenidge’s Bossa Nova.
The director of Battle of Black and Dogs, of course, was Robert Woodruff, currently represented at Yale Rep with Autumn Sonata.