As luck would have it, my favorite antique store had a vintage baby bottle. The first challenge was to find a nipple for it.
I ended up cutting a regular baby-bottle nipple to fit the top. I filled it with hot glue so nothing could leak out the tip, and I sealed it in place with more hot glue.
The second challenge was caused by the first. I needed a milky liquid that wouldn't go bad, because with the hot glue seal I wasn't going to be able to refill the bottle.
I ended up using coffee mate, powdered non-dairy creamer. The look of it is just about perfect, but after a few days it did start to separate. It still looks fine if the actress shakes it a bit before going on stage, but next time I think I will try liquid non-dairy creamer.
Also, since I'm sort of on the topic. A while back, a friend of mine was given the challenge of having large amounts of drinkable milk on stage. The actors were supposed to be ladling milk out of a large dairy jug, and then drinking it. He would have put a false bottom into the jug, so he didn't have to fill the whole thing, but still we're talking about a gallon of milk each night, a nasty cleanup, and singers who really don't want to be drinking milk (it isn't great on vocal chords). He didn't end up having to worry about it, because it got cut, but I was stumped by the question. Does anyone have any ideas? Anything you have used as a milk substitute on stage in the past?
For non-potable milk we used rosco white scenic paint diluted to the property consistency. It was in a sealed bottle like yours so it didn't dry.
ReplyDeleteCan't say I've ever been asked for drinkable milk, but do you think the powdered milk would work for that? I don't know if it's any better for singers or less messy.