Making a Glowing Fire on Set without Electricity - Oliver

I can't take credit for this amazing fire on set but it was such a creative idea that I thought I would share it with you. 

The set designer came up with this amazing fireplace made out of Styrofoam and glued it together and then painted it. It was easy to move on a piece of wood. 

The amazing part I am talking about is the way the fire glows without electricity or batteries.  We didn't want to deal with cords on set changes and so someone got online and looked up fire making ideas for sets and plays. 

He found the idea of using the red cellophane and using yellow and orange tissue as well as the cellophane if you can find it. The logs were used paper towel holders and then just ripping or cutting the cellophane and tissues and poking them out of the paper towel rolls. 

He twisted the paper towel rolls and put some black and brown paint on them. 

Now comes the most ingenious part...... Wait for it...... 

He bought glow sticks from the local dollar store and before each performance, he broke three of them and put them under the celephane and tissue to make it glow. 

In the play, they have a scene where the orphans go to sleep and the lights go down and the fire needed to glow as he is cooking on it in the morning as well.

I think it worked wonderfully. I wish the pictures could better show that but you can tell in two of the photos that it is glowing. I actually think if he put a few more in, it would have looked better with some orange and yellow cellophane but in a small town, you work with what you can find. 

For us, it was a wonderful addition to the set and it was quite creative on his part. Just thought I would share with the rest of you thespians out there who may need a powerless fire without much expense.