Prop: Green slime
Appearing in: “Angel City” by American Theater Company
In Sam Shepard’s “Angel City,” green slime oozes from the pouch of a shaman-like script doctor asked to make a Hollywood blockbuster top the box-office charts. But the play’s prop designer Tom Burch couldn’t draw on his childhood to create the gloppy substance. “My mom ran a very tight kitchen and the farthest we ever got was homemade Play-Doh,” he recalls.
So he turned to the Internet, where he found an ectoplasm recipe on a site for the “Ghostbusters” movies. He combined Borax with Elmer’s Glue and green food coloring. But the substance just wasn’t right. “Although it wouldn’t eat through skin, it was a little too toxic for the actors,” said Burch, “and at the time it was going to be poured on a red shag carpet and would have been difficult to clean up.” He gave up the recipe with no regrets. “Some parts of it were really oozy,” he explained, “and some parts were really watery and wouldn’t gel enough.”
Among some 20-odd attempts, Burch created a Jell-O-based concoction, mixing lime and blueberry and adding gelatin and cornstarch to make a slightly opaque, thick liquid that would flow from the pouch. Wrong again. “Parts of it would glop out quickly and others were watered down and trickled out,” he said.
Then Mother Nature came to the rescue. Burch had left a bottle of ERA detergent in his car during chilly weather. When he brought it in and poured it into the washing machine, he went, “Ah ha!” The cold detergent had the texture of molasses. He mixed it with Garnier Fructis shampoo to turn it green, then added Alberto VO5 conditioner and some honey to give it more ooze. Finally, he refrigerated it.
Meanwhile director Damon Kiely moved where the actor squeezes the slime from the red shag rug to a painted wood floor. “It’s easy to clean up because the detergent keeps the honey from sticking to anything,” explained Burch.
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“Angel City,” through Dec. 14, American Theater Company, 1909 W. Byron St., $25-$30; 773-929-1031.