Glass breaking

[stagegal1]

I searched the site for break away glass and the like, but none of the threads really solved my problem.

In my current show, we need to drop an oil lamp hurricane and have it break.  Very quickly after, we need an actor in just his socks to "cut" his foot on the glass. We plan on reinforcing the socks so that actual cuts are less likely.

We need something that will break well, can be cleaned up by actors during a scene, and the biggest problem - we need it to sound like glass, and not like plastic.

I figure that if there is a good solution to this problem, someone on this site will know about it.
Oh, yeah, we will have about 70 performances, so we do need it to be cost effective.

Thanks for your help!
Allison

[Mac Calder]

Get a mould made - either professionally, or do it yourself. Then use a standard break-away glass (sugar glass), but increase the amount of sugar slightly - this makes it more  brittle.

Then use a sound effect - the easiest way is to use your initial item that you made the mould from and record it (if you have a decent sound guy, they should be able to hit it on the money every time).

As for the actor in socks, a piece of cardboard sewn into the sock shaped like his feet is really easy to do and will protect their feet well.

[stagegal1]

Thanks.  It's an intimate space, so we don't want to use a sound cue.  We also don't need it to sound to be any louder than would be natural, we just don't want it to sound like plastic. Does sugar glass sound like glass when broken?

Allison

[yoyomankind]

If you place a small speaker in a spot close to the broken glass, and just keep the volume low, it won't sound like it's recorded at all.  I've done sound in a very small black box where I had to record lines of people who were offstage but couldn't be there for the show.  With a little tweaking in the space, I was able to make the recorded lines sound like the people were standing behind the curtain backstage, and the audience really thought that someone was back there.

[stagegal1]

I have an amazing sound designer.  That is not the point.  We need something to break that does not sound like plastic.  This is not about getting the sound of glass breaking.  It's about not pulling the audience out of the moment by having something that sounds so wrong.

Has anyone ever broken sugar glass?  Either on purpose or by accident?

Thanks,
Allison

[ChaCha]

one of my first gigs we used sugar martini glasses in a tiny venue. But the glass broke when there was a gunshot so as best i recall the actual breaking sound was probably masked. Looked ok though.
Hmm, its a difficult one! Can you do a few sugar glass experiments - how much time do you have to sort this out? - I cant see a way of safely breaking actual glass so sugar is probably going to be your best bet.