Technical Design Solutions for Theatre

Faking Waterproof Beer Can Labels

Chris Higgins

 

For a production of The Beach at the Yale Repertory Theatre, I was faced with the familiar problem of providing faked beer cans for use onstage. The cans had to fizz when opened, and had to be waterproof, as they were to be stored in a cooler full of ice.

I considered two solutions to this common problem before making the choice detailed in this article. The first was to drain real cans from the bottom, refill them with some non-alcoholic liquid, and then seal them with a waterproof adhesive tape such as duct tape. This approach was out of the question because, in addition to being fairly costly, it would have required far too much pre-show setup time. The second alternative, that of covering ...