Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast: Making Art Work · Nick Petrella and Andy Heise

#364: Larry Heyman (Scenic Designer) (pt. 2 of 2)

·45 min·2 clips

Larry Heyman solves a King Lear eye-gouging blood-pack problem by taping a Ziploc bag to the back of a chair.

1. Part 2 of Making Art Work episode #364 covers scenic designer Larry Heyman's $13-a-gallon stage blood recipe, his freelance business setup, and how his design approach shifts between theater, film and opera. 2. Hosts Andy Heiss and Nick Petrella interview Heyman, a Cleveland-based freelancer with over 30 years of experience whose clients include the Goodman Theater, Paramount Pictures and MTV. 3. Heyman says he developed a stage blood from corn syrup, gel food coloring, glycerin, acid and bicarbonate of soda because commercial versions cost "three or four hundred dollars for a gallon" and often stain. 4. A molecular biologist friend told him the acid likely works as a "chelating agent," and a Huntington Theater craftsperson tested the blood on over 100 fabrics, where only two stained. 5. Heyman gave the recipe away after an attorney discussed patenting it, saying a friend published it in her stage blood book, and he adapted it for Prague Shakespeare Company because corn syrup is not available everywhere. 6. On staying current, he calls himself an "antenna" and describes asking industry friends how the film Bring Her Back made its table-eating scene, learning it used a balsa wood table with a chocolate-flavored finish and a young actor wearing a dental appliance. 7. For the King Lear eye-gouging scene, he proposed taping a Ziploc bag of blood packs to the chair back so Regan could hand them off to Cornwall like a magician's trick, citing Paul Rand's "don't try to be original, just try to be good." 8. He contrasts film, where a cinematographer once ordered expensive drapes removed and blinds opened to place a light, with opera, where designing Aida might mean a 40-foot wall, and he advises that "it's not your baby" in film. 9. On business basics, he describes forming an LLC, opening a Chase business account with a $2,000 deposit, using the Easy Expense app, and buying a SawStop table saw that his accountant called "a good purchase." 10. Suited to theater designers, prop makers and arts freelancers seeking practical tips.

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