Prop: Throwable Real Eggs

[pyromnt]

I am stage managing the play Animal Farm at the moment. In one scene, these chickens start to throw eggs across the stage at Squealer and the dogs.

Obviously, we don't want to have yolk all over the stage, so I am trying to figure out how to do this scene without the mess during the show

I have been thinking that maybe we could poke small holes in each side of the egg and blow the yolk and actual egg out of the shell. The only problem with this is that they would be so hollow and have no weight therefore they would barely fly anywhere.

Basically, We want to use real eggs to throw, but have no mess

Any ideas? Thanks

[stagebear]

You can blow them out then refill them - think gelatin or something similar. it's easy to patch the hole with wax paper and elmers  glue (slather the glue over the wax paper until it's tacky and let dry).

[LizzG]

Maybe hard boil the eggs - they would still be a little messy, but would be 'throwable', and not much work at all.

[Lizzie]

I did a show recently where a character dropped a fresh egg, and we had the same dilemma. The director and I did an 'egg call' with the actor where we tried fresh, soft-boiled and hard-boiled, and decided that soft-boiled was the way to go, as the result was still a little bit 'splatty' but didn't leak everywhere.

You might want to try getting a very cheap box of eggs and boiling them for multiples of time, eg 4 mins, 6 mins and so on, to find the degree of 'cookedness' that would work for your show ?

Lizzie

[missliz]

My cousins used to have these things called Splat Backs...they're gel balls that when thrown will splat flat for a second, then return to their round shape. They came in a bunch of different styles and colors. Maybe something like that?

[pyromnt]

Thanks for all the responses guys! I will talk to my director and talk about these ideas. I will respond later which our final decision

[vbskeeby]

I just checked out those Splat Backs - they look amazing!  They even have an egg one!  Great resource!

[joannamblack]

Now if only splat back would realize the theatrical potential of their product and add a real egg shell around it that would be amazing (as is it would be impossible to make those work for the above project).

[CMProsser]

You can buy a range of fake eggs that bird breeders use to promote laying in chickens etc that have gone off the lay.  They're usually called 'nesting eggs' or something like that.  Some are just hollow plastic shells like ping-pongs that you could fill with silicon or something to give them a bit of weight.  Others are rubber.  You should be able to get the for 1 or 2 each and they should be pretty robust.  Try either a poultry supply store or online.

[PSMKay]

Rule 34 must have a corollary that if you can name it, someone's making a living from it online. There's apparently a shop that sells nothing but fake eggs at http://www.dummyeggs.com/

[pyromnt]

Okay, so the show opened last night and here is what we did:

We blew the yoke out of real eggs than filled half of the egg up with water. We used the plaster idea and just plastered up each side. The egg had weight, a shell, and was easy to clean up on stage


So thanks guy!