Open Forum

For the play Almost, Maine I have a scene with two guys drinking beer throughout the scene. I really want the audience to hear the tops popping open before they drink. There's got to be props out there, right? Water in a sealed Budweiser can? How do you do bits like this?

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Arden Thomas
Teaching Artist, Theater
Sequoyah High School
Pasadena CA
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How about using non-alcoholic beer?

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Trinna Pye


Port St. Lucie FL
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Original Message:
Sent: 11/21/2017 3:37:50 AM
From: athomas@sequoyahschool.org
Subject: How to pop beer cans and drink down on stage

For the play Almost, Maine I have a scene with two guys drinking beer throughout the scene. I really want the audience to hear the tops popping open before they drink. There's got to be props out there, right? Water in a sealed Budweiser can? How do you do bits like this?

------------------------------
Arden Thomas
Teaching Artist, Theater
Sequoyah High School
Pasadena CA
------------------------------

Use a La Croix can and put a Budweiser label on it. You could print it on a transparency (remember those) if you want a more metallic-like sheen.

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Zach Schneider Troupe No. 1
Teacher
Natrona County High School
Casper WY
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-21-2017 07:01
From: Trinna Pye
Subject: How to pop beer cans and drink down on stage

How about using non-alcoholic beer?

---------------------------------
Trinna Pye


Port St. Lucie FL

Original Message:
Sent: 11/21/2017 3:37:50 AM
From: athomas@sequoyahschool.org
Subject: How to pop beer cans and drink down on stage

For the play Almost, Maine I have a scene with two guys drinking beer throughout the scene. I really want the audience to hear the tops popping open before they drink. There's got to be props out there, right? Water in a sealed Budweiser can? How do you do bits like this?

------------------------------
Arden Thomas
Teaching Artist, Theater
Sequoyah High School
Pasadena CA
------------------------------

We put soda cans in the cooler next to empty actual beer cans filled with water. They popped the soda in the cooler then brought out the beer can.

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Kerry Bollenbach
Theatre teacher/director
Barnegat NJ
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-21-2017 03:37
From: Arden Thomas
Subject: How to pop beer cans and drink down on stage

For the play Almost, Maine I have a scene with two guys drinking beer throughout the scene. I really want the audience to hear the tops popping open before they drink. There's got to be props out there, right? Water in a sealed Budweiser can? How do you do bits like this?

------------------------------
Arden Thomas
Teaching Artist, Theater
Sequoyah High School
Pasadena CA
------------------------------

When we did this a couple years ago it was in a black box setting so everyone could see everything! So to make it as real as possible I punched a small hole in the bottom, drained the beer, rinsed, filled 3/4 with water, then put a small piece of gaff tape over the hole, sprayed it with metallic silver paint and done. Even when the guys tipped their heads and beers back all the way, you didn't notice the tape at all. They were able to toss the beers to one another and pop them open! There might be another way to seal it better but it worked for us!

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Melissa Brassard
Hammond Academy for the Performing Arts
Morton High School
Hammond, IN
www.HammondAPA.com
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-21-2017 03:37
From: Arden Thomas
Subject: How to pop beer cans and drink down on stage

For the play Almost, Maine I have a scene with two guys drinking beer throughout the scene. I really want the audience to hear the tops popping open before they drink. There's got to be props out there, right? Water in a sealed Budweiser can? How do you do bits like this?

------------------------------
Arden Thomas
Teaching Artist, Theater
Sequoyah High School
Pasadena CA
------------------------------

Brown root beer bottles?

Sent from my iPad


Original Message------

For the play Almost, Maine I have a scene with two guys drinking beer throughout the scene. I really want the audience to hear the tops popping open before they drink. There's got to be props out there, right? Water in a sealed Budweiser can? How do you do bits like this?

------------------------------
Arden Thomas
Teaching Artist, Theater
Sequoyah High School
Pasadena CA
------------------------------

I don't recall which prop book I got this from, but cut the top off a beer can, slice it up the side and inset it over a sota can (clear tape up the seam). It works I have done it.

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Phillip Rayher
Director, Theatre Dept.
Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts
San Francisco CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-21-2017 03:37
From: Arden Thomas
Subject: How to pop beer cans and drink down on stage

For the play Almost, Maine I have a scene with two guys drinking beer throughout the scene. I really want the audience to hear the tops popping open before they drink. There's got to be props out there, right? Water in a sealed Budweiser can? How do you do bits like this?

------------------------------
Arden Thomas
Teaching Artist, Theater
Sequoyah High School
Pasadena CA
------------------------------

I would try to come up with a percussion instrument from the music department that another two actors could manipulate off stage.

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Michael Johnson
Trinity NC
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-21-2017 03:37
From: Arden Thomas
Subject: How to pop beer cans and drink down on stage

For the play Almost, Maine I have a scene with two guys drinking beer throughout the scene. I really want the audience to hear the tops popping open before they drink. There's got to be props out there, right? Water in a sealed Budweiser can? How do you do bits like this?

------------------------------
Arden Thomas
Teaching Artist, Theater
Sequoyah High School
Pasadena CA
------------------------------

I just did the show last month.

I pretty easily found both photo and video tutorials online showing how to cut open beer cans and wrap them around soda cans so they could be opened onstage without involving alcohol.

Hurricane Irma put us in a bit of a rehearsal time crunch, however, and I took note of the fact that the script merely says that the characters are drinking beer; nowhere does it dictate that they actually open fresh beers during the scene.  We decided to go simple and use empty beer cans (which a parent provided to us - I didn't want kids trying to bring even empty alcohol containers on campus!) - two on the ground as if already consumed, and one in each boy's hand to sip from during the scene, with the cooler implying that there were more available.

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Jeff Grove
Theatre Teacher, Aesthetics Department Chair
Stanton College Preparatory School
Jacksonville FL
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-21-2017 03:37
From: Arden Thomas
Subject: How to pop beer cans and drink down on stage

For the play Almost, Maine I have a scene with two guys drinking beer throughout the scene. I really want the audience to hear the tops popping open before they drink. There's got to be props out there, right? Water in a sealed Budweiser can? How do you do bits like this?

------------------------------
Arden Thomas
Teaching Artist, Theater
Sequoyah High School
Pasadena CA
------------------------------