When the Art Chooses You

Contributed by Stephanie Cox-Williams

A lot of people ask if I always wanted to be a SFX artist or more commonly called, a gore designer. Well, no, not really. Or maybe?


Matt Hurley and Melody Bates in R & J & Z - Gore Design by Stephanie Cox-Williams. Photo by Hunter Canning

Going back to lil Stephanie days, each year I would choose 5 to 10 different possible careers. As I got older, I realized (after playing Sally Ride, my first role, in a 5th grade assembly) that if I couldn’t follow all 10 career paths, I could become an actor and just “play one on TV”. Or become a secret agent. I decided on actor.

Many moons later, I made it to New York. By then I had done just about every job in the theater from back and front of house and touched everything except lighting design (and gore design). Still with my dreams of being on Broadway -- or if LA came calling, a major motion picture star -- I needed all the training I could get, so I went to AMDA. I took acting classes, stage combat classes, dance classes, and eventually got my Masters in Educational Theater.

When I first moved to New York, I didn’t know about Off-Broadway, or Off-Off-Broadway. I didn’t know these were options for me to pursue in the arts. All I had done was Community Theater and I still had my eye set on Broadway. However my journey took me down a path that I didn’t even know I wanted to travel.

I remember my first experience with OOB or Independent Theater was through my friend Christopher Yustin who was doing a parody of Scooby Doo, Spooky Dog. After that, he was cast in a show, where he really connected with the company. He said, “these guys are really cool, I want to introduce you after the show.” The show was called Allston and the “guys” were Nosedive Productions.

Raw Feed in 2012. Photo by Isaiah Tanenbaum

Pulp in 2007. Photo by Aaron Epstien

I have “caught the artistic bug” a few times in my life. My first role on stage in high school; the first choreography gig I did; my first directing job; and meeting Nosedive (and subsequently working with them) each was a defining artistic moment for me. And then of course was the time I ended up doing gore design -- pretty much on the fly.

During the first show of The Blood Brothers Present… series, we had a “blood lab” and a lot of friends and designers gave us tips and helped us out. However, with the second show, it was up to each director to come up with their own effects. We were scheduled to try the effects for the first time during our tech night and incorporate them into the tech run. We were working with a lot of great ideas for effects, but they just weren’t working. It was taking a lot of time and everyone was getting frustrated. I walked over to our lighting designer and said, “I think I know how to do this, but I want to run it by you.” Together we came up with a great plan, tested it and it worked. For the rest of the night, anytime an effect was not working or taking a lot of set up (even one of mine), they called on me to solve the problem. I would instinctively MacGuyver it and we moved on. The two lessons I took from this experience was: 1) do not incorporate your effects tech into your regular tech on the same night – make sure to set aside “testing” time and then if time allows, an effects que-to-que with lights and costumes 2) keep it simple. Nowadays, I come in with, two strategies; something slightly complicated and the simple plan. Nine times out of ten, simple works best.

I still love to act, direct, choreograph, write, design props and sets, run sound, you name it. And while it wasn’t what I expected, I could not be more happy with the path my artistic life has taken. And I can’t wait to see where it leads me next. All thanks to independent theatre.

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Stephanie Cox-Williams is a FX/Gore Designer, Actress, Director, Producer and Fight Choreographer for independent theater and film. Some SFX/Gore credits include: Theatre – R+J+Z (OHA/Hard Sparks), The Temple (Tin Drum Productions), Jesus Christ Superstar, Bat Boy (NJIT), Frankenstein Upstairs (Gideon Productions), The Tower, Motherboard and Death Valley (Antimatter Collective), The Blood Brother’s Present…Anthologies (Nosedive Productions); Film –They Will Out Live Us All (AGottaandTwoShearersFilms), Assistant Effects/Make-up - Zombies: A Living History (History Channel). Named "Queen of Gore" by The New York Press (2009) and the “Tom Savini of Off-Off-Broadway” by The New York Times (2011). She has received a BA in Theatre, a Musical Theatre Conservatory degree and a Masters of Art. Named A Person of the Year by nytheatre.com in 2011 and recipient of the Outstanding Innovative Design Award for R+J+Z in 2015 by the IT Awards.

There Will Be Blood…Now, How Do We Do It?

Contributed by Guest Blogger of the Week, Stephanie Cox-Williams.

I love my job when emails, text messages or phone calls go back and forth with the words “stabbing”, “disemboweling”, “massing blood flow”, “gun wounds”.  

Over the years I have had my fair share of – “Help” communications.  I have been fortunate to help solve these sort of problems with a great amount of people – sometimes purely online – to make their show gory.

So, first one:

The character has to rip flesh off of a severed head and eat it on stage.

This one actually came from one of the pieces of “Blood Brother’s Present…New Guingol”, where a man who had ‘lost it” decapitated his fellow passenger on a bus, hold some of the bus passengers hostage and then begin to cut pieces off the decapitated head and eat it.  Here was the solution:

1. Go to any Halloween type store and buy a head.  One with hair is always better - more realistic.
2. Apply patches of thin “muscle" using fruit rollups.   The tie-dyed ones that are orange and red or red and dark red work really well or just use red.  Cut them in square pieces or strips and add to the rounded edges of the face.  (They are already sticky, so you shouldn't need any adhesive).  Add a thin layer of red gel food coloring, then another layer of fruit rollup.  Do this for 3 or less layers. 
3. Add your skin coloring - get some icing.  Carmel, butterscotch, chocolate or mix the flavors to get the desired color of your head.  There is also some recipes for edible foundation that you can Google online.  Spread the icing over your last layer of roll up and blend into the fake latex skin.

Next Question:

Someone needs to be disemboweled onstage.

This one I get quite a bit, hence I have come up with a super cheap rig to use!

1. Either buy some fake intestines/organs or you can make your own – cheap and not too time consuming.

- Get some panty hose/stockings and stuff them with paper towels, or plastic grocery bags or paper (the towels and/or the plastic bags seem to hold up longer).

- Take rubber bands and add them at varying places on the stuffed stocking –given it that intestine/sausage look.

- Paint all the intestines with red liquid latex.

- Then, using a mirror or a piece of glass paint strips of the liquid latex –about one to two layers per strip.

- Once the strips have dried, peel them off the glass and begin to wrap them tightly around the intestines – trying to make the roll as slender as you can.  Over lap strips as necessary.

- For an added effect, you can dribble lines of the liquid latex along the piece and give it a veining effect.

2. Buy a pair of stockings/panty hose.
3. Stuff one of the stockings with the organs.
4. Using scissors or a knife, cut/slash some holes/runs in the stocking.
5. Fit the stocking around the actor and tie it off in the back tucking the knot into the waist band of the pants.
6. Using some blood squibs, zombies can tear at the “stomach” piece and take out the “organs” or someone can “stab” someone with a fake knife, release a squib and then “organs” can come out.

And last question for now:

Someone needs to pee on someone/wet their pants.

I am about to give away a big trade secret for me…are you ready?  Go out and buy a squirting flower…remove the flower.  Now, you have a device that has a tube and a hand pump to release liquid when it is needed.  This is a substitute for the CO2 cartridge used a lot in film and in some stage.  I find it more reliable.

And, quick and easy zombie or as I like to say – messed up skin:
Flesh colored liquid latex with toilet paper and some lentils all mixed together.  Paint on skin.  Gives the skin that beginning to wear away look.

I have so many more questions (like how do I make an edible finger and stigmata and an easy applicable burn), but must keep this short for now.  If you would like to come out and see some of my blood effects in action, please stop by Under St. Mark’s from now until November 19, Thursday (pay what you can), Friday and Saturday at 8pm for Dysfunctional Theater Company’s “Brew of the Dead II – October Flesh”.

What the Heck is a Squib?? And Other Fun Items in Theater Gore…

Contributed by Guest Blogger of the Week, Stephanie Cox-Williams.

First off, a squib is a receptacle of fluid to be disbursed at a given moment by hand or electronics in an explosive manner….or as I like to think of it….splashy, splashy gory fun blast!

Eh, hum.   Moving on.

Now, two things, one I loved that when working with a particular group someone said how much they loved the word “squib”.  I believe so much that saying the word “squib” repeatedly became part of their acting vocal warm up.  Another thing, notice that I said fluid.  I have had to make squibs where the fluid was not fake blood, but, for instance, brain fluid.  Or a theatrical look at what brain fluid could artistically look like, as fluid from your brain is probably more clear or yellowish if you were to strip away the blood red color.  And, I’ve gone too far in explaining right?   Anyway, a “squib” can hold any type of liquid and is the preferred method by me to release said fluid in a splashing or startling manner.

This is my own personal definition.  You can google squib if you would like a more official one.

I say it is my preferred method as over the years I have found it to be the easiest way to choreograph a gore scene.  I was taught to use plastic baggies.  Plastic fold over top sandwich baggies to be exact.  Cheap, easy and it gets the job done.  For those of you that work with me, I usually have 3 terms for the size of the squib.  The grape (small), the strawberry (regular size) and a small heart (large).  I have also gotten adept at making the pea size one.   So if you just need a small burst that leaves a few drops sky rocketing through the air and on the actors fingers and, the tiny squib can usually fit into the front passage way of an ear for hiding.

Now all this talk about gore as probably a.) got you hungry or b.) wanting to add gore to your next Christmas Carol.  Well there are a few things to consider when doing this and the first question is….is the moment in your show really going to be achieved by adding blood/gore to it?

The stage directions could read, “blood fountain comes out of Billy’s mouth” or  “the head is pried off the actor and shown to the audience”.  However, once you have the script in hand, is that moment really necessary to telling the story? 

If that answer is an unequivocal yes, then move on to these thoughts.

Can the budget afford it?  Sure one can make and or buy some fake blood.  One can buy devices or design a device to make that blood fountain come out of Billy’s mouth.  Those are easy.  The hard part is making it believable 100% of the time, every performance and having a back up plan (if the trick is difficult).  So, that means doubling your recipe for fake blood, doubling your solution and the actor only has one costume for the whole show, so one may want to double up on that costume.

Oh, and laundry.  I can’t stress enough how much you need a solution for this.  For a lot of people I work with, there is a system where one person is the laundry lad or maid, agreeing to take the soiled clothes home every night and washing them.  Excellent.  Also remember that even manufactured store bought blood will not come out 100% of the time. Doing laundry for these shows, just like a lot of other things, will come down to a particular method of soap, water and stain removers, basically, your own personal laundry science.  A few fabrics that fake blood – any type – seems to come out of are silks, synthetics and loose weaved shirts (think dollar store type clothing).

Are you working in rep or is that space yours everyday for the run of the show?  This will decide whether you are having geysers or squibs.  Also, what are the materials the space is made out of?  Is there a lot of brick or fabric or unpainted wood?  What is your plan when a squib that has fired every night far away from the white projection screen suddenly gets on it?

Next post – my favorite question and answers.  Basically, “help, I’m doing blood effects in a show” Q&A.

The Zombies are Coming

Contributed by Guest Blogger of the Week, Stephanie Cox-Williams.

First off, thank you all of the Innovative Theater Foundation for asking me to come over to their sandbox and contribute.  It’s a real honor!

Second, I have not really written or blogged since about April of this year.  I have had a lot of great projects overt the summer Blood Brother’s Presents… and remounting one of my favorite Nosedive shows Infectious Opportunity while also getting to work with a lot of great new people as well.  Artist’s over at the newly formed Anit-matter Collective, a few brief meetings with Ars Nova and then two Fringe Shows.   Needless to say, I had a very busy summer.

Almost all of these shows had one thing in common – gore.  Some semblance of the use of blood and a little bit of gory bits thrown in for good measure. 

With the growing popularity of zombies in pop culture (I should say comeback as they have been very popular on and off for years), a request for services beyond just the use of a blood squib in theater has risen.  Also, with technology being like it is, a horror theatrical piece is now being asked to look like more of what we see in the movies. 

And, by the luck of draw (or may I say a huge thank you to Patrick Shearer and Pete Boisvert for the birth of their horror series), I started to turn my attention to gore effects design.  And, on a budget. 

Wait, I didn’t really mention that did I?

These pieces that are coming out constantly, the majority of them you will not find on Broadway, or even Off-Broadway, but the independent theater side of things.  And, they are expected to look at least as good as some of the first independent features of horror.  And with little to no money. 

As I tell many a collaborator, theater gore is live and has to work every single time it is performed, not just for that one perfect take.  It’s going to cost some money.  And, there are a lot of variables one needs to consider before going down this path of add gore to a show.

Now, I could go into the origins of this type of theater, but I would rather give the audience here what a lot of my collaborators have been asking for-how does one do this trick?   A few solutions to your blood problems….or I mean, theatrical, fake blood problems.   I am going to take the most asked questions I have gotten – starting out with “what is a squib” and deliver it to you. Also, a checklist of things to consider when producing a show with gore. I know, Halloween is soon over.  But, maybe there might be something in here to bring holiday cheer to your next passion play?  

Guest Blogger of the Week: Stephanie Cox-Williams

We would like to thank Christine O’Grady for blogging for us, especially right in the middle of rehearsals for her production of Iron Curtain. 

And we have a real treat for you this week as our guest blogger is Stephanie Cox-Williams.

Stephanie Cox-Williams is currently Company Manager of Nosedive Productions.  She is an Actress, Special/Gore FX Designer, Director and Fight Choreographer for Independent Theater.  Acting credits include: Actress B in in the great expanse of space, there is nothing to see but more, more, more (Matt Freeman/the Brick), Dolly in Final Girl-The Blood Brother’s Present…Freaks from the Morgue, Grandma Blood in The Blood Brother’s Present…Pulp, Flora and Mother in The Little One (Nosedive Productions), Gorman in Starboat (Nosedive/Vampire Cowboys-Saloon), Louisa in The Fantasticks; Film: Girl in Houseguests (Broken Windows Productions).  Special/Gore FX credits include: Theatre – Zombie Wedding (RC Staab/The NY Fringe), Death Valley (Antimatter Collective), The Blood Brother’s Present…Anthologies, The Little One (Nosedive Productions),  Neighborhood 3 (SPF); Film –Houseguests, evermore and Monday (part of Sinister Six Must Be Destroyed festival), named "Queen of Gore" by the NY Press in 2009 and the “Tom Savini of Off-Off-Broadway” by the NY Times.   Director credits include: Various Shorts for The Blood Brother’s Present…Anthologies, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Barefoot in the Park Fight Choreography: Senile Agitation (The Draft Festival), His Beauty (Planet Connections), Room With No View (The Blood Brother’s Present…The New Guignol), The Story of Icarus Phoenix (Fight Fest 2009). She has she received a BA in Theatre, a Musical Theatre Conservatory degree and a Masters of Art in Educational Theatre.  She has started and will hopefully someday complete her epic story of Icarus Phoenix and the Zombie War, cause, you know, there aren’t enough theater pieces about Zombies out there.