A couple of notes on paint, and an amusing news story. Paint is a pain in the ass, as far as theater sets go. It's hideously expensive, it takes forever, it makes a mess, and it takes lots of skill to work with it right. I was taught to use Roscoe Iddings for theater sets. * Advantages: Beautiful rich colors, mixes very well (other paints go muddy when mixed together). Very flat matte finish. * Mixed blessings: does not cure, is always water-soluble. This makes blending colors on canvas easier, and cleanup is a snap, but the previous show remains visible when you try to paint over it. (If you notice this happening, use a cheap latex primer to seal over the old show before repainting.) * Major disadvantages: it's a casein (milk protein) base, and it spoils a few months after being opened. It might be good one show later, and will be horrible the following show. Garry Zacheiss taught me that adding a bit of pine-sol when you first open it helps; I haven't noticed that this works. DO NOT USE SPOILED PAINT! DO NOT USE SPOILED PAINT! I can't say this enough. If it smells a bit bad, *DO NOT USE IT!*. You would think it would stop smelling once it dries. You'd be wrong. You would think it would stop smelling a month after you paint it. You'd be wrong. You'd think, smelling it in the set shop, that it's not all *that* bad. That's because your nose has become accustomed to it. Some people use ordinary house latex wall paint. * Advantages: Easy to get ahold of, and fairly cheap. Water-soluble when wet, but dries waterproof. Doesn't spoil. Cheap. * Disadvantages: You usually want a flat matte finish, rather than semi-gloss. Flat latex isn't really all that flat; it's got a weird sheen which looks kind of funny when you're painting, for instance, rock or bare wood. Solid, drab colors (brown, black, white, etc.) look all right, but the really bright colors aren't as bright as Iddings, and they look muddy when you try to blend them. My current paint of choice: Rosco "Off Broaday" and Rosco "Supersaturated" paint. * Advantages: The supersaturated paints are concentrated, so you don't have to carry as many cans from the paint store. They're also quite cheap, when you take into account the dilution factor. The "Off Broadway" paints have great bright colors (almost the same color line as Roscoe Iddings). Nice and flat; no gloss. Colors mix fairly well (though I admit I haven't tried mixing very bright colors), and supersaturated mixes well with off broadway. VINYL ACRYLIC, so they behave the same as house latex as far as water-solubility. And they don't spoil. * Disadvantages: I haven't found any. You can buy Rosco paints at Warren Hardware and Electric, at 470 Tremont street, Boston. There's a bus which runs along Tremont to Park Street, or you can walk from New England Medical Center. And now, the amusing news story. The Tech, November 23, 1999 "Students Smell Something Rotten in Stratton Center" By Zareena Hussain ----------------- Students thanked their lucky noses Sunday as the mysterious stench that filled the Student Center for much of the past week subsided. For anyone who was wondering, the source of the strange, manure-like odor originated from paint used for sets in the Musical Theater Guild's production of Evita that ran in La Sala de Puerto Rico Thursday through Sunday. "It reeked," admitted elicia R. Anderson '01, MTG president. The theater company used paint containing casein, a protein commonly found in milk. Stage hands hadn't realized that the casein in the paint had begun rotting until they began to paint the night before the show opened, according to Anderson. "They didn't have a choice because of time constraints," Anderson said, "They tried to use the good paint first bur ran out." Those however who experienced the brunt of the bad smell -- the case-members themselves -- took a somewhat stoic attitude. "You get used to it," said Sara J. Elice '01, "We didn't like the smell but we got accustomed to it." However, passersby couldn't help but notice. "It was nasty," said Joanne Lee '00, who had to be in Student Center Friday night preparing for a presenatation when the smell had reached its relative peak. "It was even in the stairwell." According to Lee some others commented, "It smells like butt." Some don't notice stench Some were left altogether unaffected. According to one Toscanini's employee, closed doors between the Student Center and the ice cream shop helped to keep the smell out. Anderson could not comment on whether the smell from the paint affected ticket sales. The Campus Activities Complex used deodorant spray and put up fans to try to ventilate the area, according to Michael W. Foley, associate director for operations for CAC. Using rotten paint for sets can be a common pitfall. "We've almost made the same mistake before," said Ashwini G. Deshpande G, a member of the Gilbert & Sullivan Players which recently switched to latex-based paints for their sets. Usually for G&S, there is enough time to buy new paint in the event that the old paint has gone bad, Deshpande said. "The bad paint has been thrown away," Anderson said, adding that the MTG managing board will discuss the possibility of switching from casein- to latex-based paints. The sets are now being stored in the shop in the basement of Walker shared by MTG and other threater groups waiting to be cleaned, Anderson said. Parts of the sets included G&S owned material. "We are planning to discuss the condition of the shared materials with MTG," Despande said. The paint used by MTG was Rosco's Iddings Deep Colors line. It is used for its matte, non-reflective finish and has a normal shelf-life of 18-24 months. In guidelines for using the paint, the company warns, "Once wet paint spoils, you cannot use the paint and assume the smell will disperse after the coating has dried. The smell will not go away and there is very little that can be done to remove it."