NO SHAVING CREAM!!!
Do NOT even THINK of use shaving cream on stage. It makes the surface slipery, burns when it gets in your eyes, and is basically down right dangerous. Look in your local joke shops. They should have something that will not cause your actors to fall A over T or gauge their eyes out if they get cream in them.
Thank you. I've been saying this since we found out that they planned on using it in place of soft ice cream and no one seems to be listening to me except for my PSM whose voice is also being ignored, much to our annoyance.
To make matters worse, our scenic artist did a paint test where the shaving cream was (surprisingly) non-corrosive, so now the Director of Design has decided it's not a big deal.
What will happen (as it always does) is that we will use it in tech the first day, things will go horribly wrong and then will switch to instant mashed potatoes like I suggested 2 freaking months ago.
I so love this mentality of "Not my problem." And the nonchalance associated with it that comes from members of the production team at certain times. The idea that they will build/paint/light/prop it and after that task is done it's stage management's problem. Then when we (my SM team) suggest that something may be a problem we're told we're involving ourselves in something that's not our business (when last I checked it's certainly our business to maintain the welfare of all members of the production) and should but out. Then, just as we predicted, things go wrong and then everyone is put out about having to fix a problem they first ignored.
Sorry for the rant, I have been thinking about starting a thread on this for some time now and it all seems to have popped out now. Maybe I will anyway.
And thanks for support on the matter.