Quick Shifting Hingeless Doors For Lysistrata Jones Set

In continuing my posts on the recently closed Theatre Simpson production of Lysistrata Jones, I wanted to share a simple solution to what might have been a daunting challenge.  I shared our solution for creating a large neon sign element to shift the location of the action of the play from the Athens University campus to a local brothel known in the play as the “Eros Motor Lodge.”  The action of the play shifts to this local several times.  The first time, the girls visit the brothel seeking advice on how to get their boyfriends hot and bothered as a step in their effort to incentivize the boys to win a basketball game.  This strategy backfires when some of the boys, angry at the girls for attempting to manipulate them in this manner, instead of winning a basketball game to gain their (now very hot) girlfriend’s favors, dump them instead.  In order to satiate their now inflamed desires, some of the boys visit the local whore-house and are introduced to three hookers from the stable of girls at the brothel.  One of the boys flees with the discovery that he cares too much for his girlfriend, while a second becomes discouraged when he senses that his hooker is not really interested in him.  The third goes off into a hotel room with his new companion.

This second appearance of the Eros Motor Lodge, then, requires (or at least benefits from) having at least one door.  The other Eros Motor Lodge scenes don’t benefit from having doors;  In fact, no other scene in the play requires  doors. This presents the challenge that these doors probably wouldn’t be permanent fixtures of the stage and would need to shift in and out for just the one scene.

When I designed the scene, I conceived of three doors under the band platform that could be used to suggest the doors of the hotel.  The research image of the Mardi Gras motel was my inspiration for the repetition of the rectangular shape and for  color.

With this in mind, I constructed the band platform the exact height of a standard door (6′-9″) so that stock sized doors could fit and swing underneath.  My vision was for simple frameless doors. Since standard doors hang and swing from a door frame and have large butt hinges along one edge.  Another challenge was that the shift into and out of this scene needed to be fluid and quick. This meant that we had to envision doors that hinged in a non-standard manner and that could be installed easily and that would not embarrass us by malfunctioning catastrophically.

Bottom pivot pin

The solution came from the observation of how the hinge on bi-fold doors (such as are used for closets in some modern domestic construction) is constructed. The hinge on such a door consists of a pin set in holes on the top and bottom of the door and fractions of inches from the “hinged” edge.  These pins fit into sockets or brackets in the floor and in the top edge track.  The door swings from these pins.  With this as inspiration,

Top bracket of perforated steel angle,

I constructed pins of short lengths of 1/4″ pipes.  I welded these to short lengths of steel strap with pre-drilled and countersunk holes in them  to permit attaching them to the top and bottom edges of the door(s).

Top pin slips into upper bracket.

The lower pin was just long enough to rest in a 1/4″ masonite “socket” screwed to the floor and to lift the door up to permit it to swing.  The top pin was long enough to engage a socket created of scrap perforated steel angle attached to the overhead structure in such a way as to be invisible to the audience.  In performance the cast members carried

Bottom pin dropped into Masonite “socket.”

the doors in at a slight angle, inserted the top pin in the bracket, lifted the door upright, sliding the top pin securely into the bracket and dropped the doorso that the bottom pin rested securely in the socket.  With practice, the procedure was smooth and appeared effortless.  The doors functioned flawlessly.

Aside from painting the doors in vivid chromatic jewel tones to reflect the research, we added dummy handles to the front and room numbers (65, 67 and, of course, 69)

Meanwhile, that’s enough for now! Have fun!  But be safe!

SJM

Faux Neon Sign for Lysistrata Jones

Theatre Simpson–Measure For Measure–Fall 1992

This is a follow-up to the Lysistrata Jones set design entry a couple of weeks ago.  One of the locations that is represented in the musical Lysistrata Jones is the Eros Motor Lodge.  Early in the design process we discussed representing this location with a large neon sign element.  I have done several such signs over the years.  One of the common strategies that I have used is to create a simple light box with cut-out letters and shapes representing the neon tube.   We used this technique for a 1992 production of Measure for Measure.  Set in a dystopian alternate present or near future, that production featured signs  with non-English words on them.  If memory serves Nogen translates as “Nude” in some nordic language.  Similarly Flicka, Kiz and Divka translate as “Girls, Girls, Girls” in three different languages.  We used a Cut-Awl to cut the letters out of lauan and constructed otherwise light-tight boxes with incandescent lights in them to provide illumination.  Color media such as is used in front of theatrical lighting fixtures provided the color.  In the case of the “Flicka Kiz Divka” sign three separate compartments and three separate electrical circuits  permitted us to  “chase” the three words.

Theatre Simpson — Twelfth Night — Fall 1997

We employed a similar technique for the 1997 production of Twelfth-Night (set in a conjectural 1950s era cuban dance hall called “Club Illyria.”)  In both cases the neon lettering is of unconvincing as neon and more closely resembles other styles of illuminated sign.  Other experiments using plastic tubing inserted in the lettering cut-outs for a dance hall sign for a production of The Glass Menagerie and a reproduction “Corona” beer sign for a conceptual production of Cosi fan tutti were more successful in emulating the look of neon.

After learning of a product available from Rose Brand called Neoflex,  I became intrigued with the possibility of creating for Lysistrata Jones a much more authentic-looking neon sign than those achieved up to  this point.   The Neoflex product also appears to be available from the manufacturer Cii through an online site.

Aas the design evolved, however, I found that I needed about 64 feet of one color  and approximately 80 feet of another.  At  $13 per foot (the price from cii) the cost of this  product would be over $1800.  This price tag was  far beyond my budget for this element of the overall set design.  Even with this product out of the question, I was determined to find a way to move forward with the overall idea.

I turned my attention to standard style colored rope lights. Several companies sell rope lights in the colors that I hoped to use.  I bought the Red and Amber rope light in rolls of #150′ for below $100 per roll from 1000bulbs.com.  With the addition of some of the needed accessories (clips, power cord connectors, etc) I was able to buy the necessary  supplies for around $350 including shipping (which was $80).  I chose to use 120 volt  incandescent versions of the product to permit our lighting designer Rick Goetz to run chase effects with the letters E-R-O-S (the name of the Motor Lodge) and with the words “Motor” and “Lodge”.  I also wanted it to be possible to run them on the dimmers so that if there was a need to balance the brightness between the two colors, the lighting designer could do so.  As it turned out, this did not become an issue.

Senior student Josh Zieman took charge of the construction of the sign.  Since the rope light can only be cut in 2′ incriments he had to plan the cutting and circuiting of the rope light carefully, weaving it in and out of holes drilled through the lauan face of the sign to achieve the desired results.  He used a combination of accessory tracks to achieve straight runs and clips for curves to hold the flexible tubing in place on the sign face.  However, we found that simple white zip-ties were also essential in achieving the proper results.

The finished sign,  appears in the photo above.  The crooked angle was a design choice. The compromise in material from Neoflex to rope light is not particularly visible in the photo.  In person, the compromise was more apparent.  One day, budgets might support the far superior Neoflex product.  In the meantime, the rope light option permitted us to build the scenic element instead of cutting it!

Meanwhile, that’s enough for now! Have fun!  But be safe!

SJM

Designs for Lysistrata Jones

I realize that the summer has passed and we are already past mid-terms .  I have been remiss at making entries in this blog.  Here at Theatre Simpson we have just begun technical rehearsals for a production of Lysistrata Jones.  The production provides a number of challenges to a program as small as ours, not the least of which is the wireless miking of 12 cast members and 2 backup singers and the accommodation of a small rock band onstage to accompany the singers.

Following are some further thoughts about the production:

Lysistrata Jones

Even though we are staging the production in a theatrical space (after discarding the initial impulse to stage the production in an authentic gymnasium space due to logistical impediments), we intend to capture the essence of an actual gymnasium in the environment of the setting

To that end, the basic unit  consists of a central, upstage, raised area, resembling the overhead running track found in the local 20s-era gym.  The small band and musical director/conductor will play attop this space,y along with a couple of backup vocalists.

This balcony will appear to be supported, in part, by six steel truss-style columns rising from the stage floor to an overhead  steel roof truss.  Suspended from the truss on either side of the stage will be a pair of simple scoreboards (one for the home team and the other for “visitors”) Beneath the balcony will be a large open span flanked by sections of cinder-block wall  providing the actual support for the overhead platform.

Downstage of the balcony, the floor will resemble and function a half-court basketball floor. It will be painted with a central “keystone” facing a backboard and basket affixed to the upstage balcony rail.  A pair of self-supporting basketball backboards and “hoops” will also flank the playing area to add staging variety.  Downstage of the basketball floor, a run of two, wide steps leading to the playing circle and the central vommitory will allow for additional staging options while paying homage to Greek architecture.

Mixed Media Rendering of Set (Watercolor, India Ink & Colored Pencil)

The action references several different locals through the course of the musical.   Rather than completely transform the scene to represent each location, we chose to take a theatrical approach by staging the production entirely in a gym.

We chose to eschew a “Glammed-Up”   environment as might be expected for a musical, and, instead intend to retain an “old school” charm to the setting.   20s-era architectural elements representing the gymnasium and aged and worn or “old-school” quality of the  added elements serve to establish this aesthetic.  It probably goes without saying that all of the added prop elements shift rapidly with a minimum of fuss (using actors or stagehand extras) so as to keep up the show’s pace.

Research: School Library

Several specific locations will be represented by the addition of minimal specific property elements.  For example, a pair of bookshelves and an institutional wooden table and matching chairs will represent the library.

Research: Lockers and Bench

The locker room will be represented with a pair of small sets of gym lockers and a bench or two.  Transition to the frat. house involves the addition of a sofa, while a car is established by seating the actors on the downstage steps with a simple steering wheel.

Great colorful hotel

The transition to the Eros Motor Hotel scenes will be a little more elaborate with a large faux neon sign element and 5 doors representing the individual rooms, as well as a decorative chaise.

The final scene of the play is a Bacchanal-themed celebratory school dance. This scene will transform the gym into a school dance by introducing a large hand-made “Bacchanal” banner and crème-colored drapes flanking the balcony.

Later posts will explore the creation of the Faux-Neon Sign and some projected scoreboards and a couple of other little tricks that might amuse.

Meanwhile, that’s enough for now! Have fun!  But be safe!

SJM

Distracted Paint Technique: Spraying Up From Black

Distracted closed last weekend, so I thought that it was about time that I record an account of the paint technique that I used on that production.  I call the general technique “Spraying up from Black”.  I devised this technique several years ago based upon observation of others painting certain effects and from my own experience.

It used to be, when I wanted to create a dark(ish) stone floor, I would paint the entire floor a middle grey value and then use a series of washes, spatters and sprays to darken the floor to the value that was my target.  This process seemed to be time-consuming and to involve a number of layers of paint.  After a while, I devised the following technique:

• Base paint the stage floor Black (it is usually already some manner of black from previous productions or because we “painted out” the floor of the previous production to the default black)
• Using a “Hudson sprayer” Spray a series of light to middle-value spatter coats over the black.  This can vary in density from just giving the black floor a kind of “presence” to considerably lightening the overall value of the floor and giving it a particular chroma or  color range.  By varying the output of the sprayer, you can range from an even uniform mist (usually not particularly dynamic or desirable) to a heavy dribbled, splattered texture.
• Once dry, line the floor as needed
• Add a series of thin washes or glazes over the individual “stone blocks” to give them “individuality”
• I used this overall technique for the recycled walls and floor of the Distracted set.

The photo at the left shows the screens, which were left as raw muslin for the production of Alice’s Trip, with a base coat of black paint as the first step in painting them for Distracted.  I painted them using thinned black paint applied with a garden sprayer.  Since the stage floor on which I painted them was already and was to remain black, I painted them directly on the stage floor so that the black overspray fell on the black surface.  I laid the plastic down under the panels to protect the black stage floor from overspray from the subsequent light spray coats.

I used a light tan-colored paint to give the screens “presence”. The technique raised the overall value of the screens while also lending a texture to the otherwise flat expanses. This gave me a much more interesting base over which to apply a series of thin color washes.

I applied the same technique to the stage floor.  This photo illustrates the floor following the application of the light-valued spatter over-spray.  Note that the first of the 5 colors of washes have been “randomly” applied.  The “screens” from the previous photos can be seen finished at the back of the setting.  Red “rosin paper” masks overspray from damaging the finished paint on the finished screens and prevents the unpainted concrete stage floor from getting paint on it.

The detail at left illustrates the texture a little more clearly while the photo below shows the finished floor.  I created the colored washes by combining water soluble polyurethane with paint and pigment to achieve both translucency and durability  with the color washes.  After the colored washes were applied to the various squares, lining of pale blue completed the application.

The real key to the success of this process is the

use and care of the garden sprayer.  Often called a Hudson Sprayer (after one of the earliest and still premiere manufacturers of this type of sprayer) the garden sprayer consists of a tank that can be pressurized (usually by a manual piston-action pump) and an attached hose with a hand-activated valve that allows the pressure to release through a narrow wand that can be adjusted to vary the quality of the output from a fine mist to a robust stream.

• The paint must be thinned to the consistency of skim milk.  If it is too thick, the paint will either not come out or will dribble or spit out the end of the wand.
• All liquids going into the tank must be strained to remove impurities  (clots, blobs, threads, etc) that will clog the sprayer valve, wand and/or tip if permitted to contaminate the liquid.  I prefer to use a common wire kitchen strainer for this function.  Use a canning funnel to allow a faster pour and to prevent paint from spilling down the side of the tank.  Make sure to rinse all of the straining apparatus immediately to prevent impurities from clogging the mesh  or from working their way through the mesh and falling into the tank during a subsequent use.
• The tank must be thoroughly rinsed immediately following each use so as to prevent dried paint from clogging the valve, wand and/or tip.
• The final cleaning of the tank must involve pressurizing the tank and spraying several ounces of clear water through the system and out of the wand. This also assures that any subsequent color to be sprayed is not contaminated by paint remaining in the wand from a previous spraying application.  I often add a squirt of dish soap or Murphy’s oil soap to the water  during this stage for additional cleaning action.
• While you can buy expensive sprayers with stainless steel tanks and brass or copper fittings and parts for $150 or more, a cheap $20 sprayer will do just fine if you observe good sprayer hygiene.

Meanwhile, that’s enough for now! Have fun!  But be safe!

SJM

DISTRACTED: Another Set Design

The play Distracted by Lisa Loomer had it’s Iowa premiere on Friday, April 26 at the Des Moines Civic Center’s Stoner Theatre.  Produced by Stage West (a local resident theatre company), the play features my set design.  The play is a fast-paced examination of the diagnosis ADHD (Attention Deficit, Hyperactivity Disorder ) and the impact that this disorder has on the community, the family and the individual with this diagnosis.  The scenes move from the kitchen of  nine-year old Jesse’s home to various doctor’s offices, clinics, to the car, a neighborhood street and even to Mom & Dad’s bedroom.  The challenge that director Deena Connoly and I faced was to create a setting where the scenes could bounce effortlessly from scene to scene so as to maintain the necessary pace.  Our solution is a simple unit set with a few items of furniture that can be easily manipulated by the actors and a series of projections (described in the script).

The initial set sketch shows the use of some wall elements that I intended to recycle from Theatre Simpson’s Fall production of Alice’s Trip.  A simple raised platform is anchored by a kitchen counter and a few simple items of furniture (a table, 2 stools, 3 kitchen chairs and a pair of office chairs that could be rolled on and off as needed to establish offices) are the main elements.  Visible above and between the back wall elements is an irregularly shaped projection screen.  Two identical screens over the center seating area provide audience on the sides with mirrored images from the central screen so that the media on the screen will have the hoped-for impact on them.

The Plan shows some changes to the initial idea with the refinement of the raised platform to include a section that is 12″ off the stage floor on SL to accommodate the addition of Dad’s reclining chair (The only element that doesn’t matchy-matchey the rest of the setting).  The counter and its lower platform have also been refined so that behind the counter on the platform, the counter is a table height or 30 inches, while the downstage side of the counter is at counter-height of 36″.  The shape of the counter has also been adjusted so that it may momentarily serve as the bed for a scene taking place in Mom & Dad’s bedroom.

Also show in the plan is the placement of the projection screens and their associated projectors.  While I made it clear to the producer and production manager when I was engaged that we would need someone to design the projections and to work out the equipment and software issues (as well as other technical issues relating to the image manipulation and projection) I was expected to work out many of these details.

The photo of the set under pre show lighting shows the finished set and features a central projection slide that I designed to reflect the paint treatment of the set itself.   Below is a series of other images from the production.

The Kitchen

Father’s Chair

An Office with 2 Screens

The Classroom

New Mexico Clinic

Jinx Explains Brain

 

These photos illustrate a variety of ways in which the staging and lighting and slides transform the stage from one scene to another.  Image selection and creation was a collaborative effort between myself, director Deena Conolly and the projections consultant/engineer Elizabeth Ballstadt.

Next time, I will talk readers through the fast and relatively easy paint technique that I used for the finishes on this production.

Meanwhile, that’s enough for now! Have fun!  But be safe!

SJM

Pop-Up Scale Model Furniture

The entire exercise would be a great deal harder without the pre-drawn model pieces that I provide the students.  This drawing is merely an extension of the CADD drawing that they already know how to do.  It requires only a little imagination to create such a drawing from the orthographic drawing of the chair.  Even so, students must take care and master cutting skills using the the tip of  #11 Exacto-style knives in order to end up with respectable results.

Years ago, I ran across a retail product known as Pop-Out Furniture that takes out a lot of the tedium for creating scale furniture.  Available from Paul Pape designs, these scale models take the form of sheets of heavy stock with laser-cut scale furniture suites in a number of period styles including Elizabethan, 2 variations on Chippendale, Colonial American, Early Victorian, Late Victorian, 19th Century German and Twentieth-Century Modern.  Available in 1/2″ and 1/4″ scale each sheet costs between $10 (1/4″ scale) and $15 (1/2″ scale).  The furniture is pretty detailed and easy to release from the sheet by cutting small tabs (like the sprues on a plastic injection-molded model).  Most of the furniture pieces can be created by lightly scoring  and folding the flat pieces  and gluing the parts together.  While a designer might find these useful on occasion, they are quite limited as to the exact style of furniture in each set and as to the items of furniture included.  Furthermore, if a designer is to use these model pieces in a production model, the director could be excused for expecting that precise furniture in the finished set.

I find it much more satisfying (and accurate) to create furniture models that resemble the precise furniture that is to be used. As an example, the Pop-Out Furniture does not feature any furniture that resembles Stickley Arts and Craft style furniture such as the chair featured in my last blog.  It is not that difficult to adapt the construction drawings for any created furniture into some version of a Pop-Out Furniture style model.  Even existing furniture can be converted into a CADD drawing with a little work.

The process begins with a series of photos: Front, Side and Top of the item of furniture.  Take the photos with a telephoto lens if possible to minimize the effect of perspective that a wide-angle lens will feature.  Import the jpgs of the photos into a CADD file (I use Vectorworks) and scale each view based upon critical measurements taken from the actual item of furniture.  The example at right shows such a series of photos taken of a chair that we used some time ago for a production of One Flea Spare.

Once the JPG images are properly scaled,  one can rather easily trace the members of furniture over-top of the JPGs creating drawing in orthographic projection.  A little further manipulation of the orthographic projection can yield a drawing that can be cut out, scored and folded in a similar manner to the Pop-Out Furniture.  I have found that the need to completely cut out the entire furniture piece out of heavy card stock or Bristol board makes it difficult to achieve quite the detail that the Pop-Up furniture has, but with a little patience, a sharp knife and practice, the neophyte modelers can achieve impressive results.  I also tend to make more use of layering and often cut out and glue tiny parts rather than try to score and fold.

Above is the sheet that I created so that I could model the chair used in the production of One Flea Spare at Theatre Simpson in 2007.  I have since re-used the model for an exercise that I have the students do in the  Techniques for Costume and Set Designers course at Simpson College.

Meanwhile, that’s enough for now! Have fun!  But be safe!

SJM

Another Design Exercise: 1/2″ = 1′-0″ Scale Model Furniture

Earlier I wrote of one of the major components of a course that I teach at Simpson College when I related information about the CADD training that students at Theatre Simpson get through the Design and Technical Theatre courses in the department’s curriculum.  Another major section of the THTR 223: Techniques for Set and Costume Designers course is the construction of scale models.

For many years, the gold standard as a method for designers to communicate scenery and architecture to their constituencies has been the creation of the physical scale model.  In fact, there is an entire sub-industry within scene design of set designers who specialize in creating models for other designers.  USA (United Scenic Artist) contracts often include a separate fee for the creation of a scale model and for the employment of a model builder.

While the physical model may one day cease to be the standard with the advent and eventual adoption of 3-D CADD, it is still in a designer’s best interest to develop skills in the creation of scale models. Model construction breaks down into several main techniques:  Stick-building, Scoring & Folding, Layering, Sculpting and using Found Objects,  No one way is the only or preferred method.  In fact, all methods are relevant, and any given project may employ more than one method.

Model-building can require a number of specialized tools, a variety of materials and a great deal of patience.  I try to mitigate some of these challenges (thought the students still must provide a quantity of patience) by creating a 1/2″ = 1′-0″ scale model of the Arts-& Crafts Stickley style chair that they are familiar with from the CADD excercises earlier in the course.

Students are provided with a sheet of tag-board with an adapted version of the drawing of the chair pre-printed on in and with the following detailed instructions:

Create the legs:

• Create by laminating layers of card stock, tag board, Bristol board or chip board together and cutting it to scale width with X-acto knife (note that 2 thicknesses of chip board & a layer of card-stock or tag board will approximate the correct thickness)
• Cut 4 lengths using drawing from sheet as template

Create the Side and Back Panels :

• Carefully cut out all 6 panels.
• Cut out the open areas in the centers.
• Spray spray 77 on the BACK of 3 of the panels
• Glue to blank piece of card stock, tag board, or Bristol Board
• Trim the blank card stock to the edges of the pre-cut panel
• Spray spray 77 on the BACK of the remaining 3 panels
• CAREFULLY position on the BACK of the first laminated panels making sure to orient the panels the same way.

Cut out Front

• Spray cement the template to a piece of chip-board to approximate 1″ in scale (about 1/16″ in real-world thickness)
• Trim around the template, cutting the laminated result to size

Cut out Brackets

• Spray cement the 6 bracket templates from the worksheet to another thickness of card-stock. (this will be a little thin in scale, but you don’t want these details to get to clunky).
• Trim to the template outline(s).
• Careful not to lose them, they are small.

Cut out Arms

• Cut out arms from 1/16th inch thick stock (the template cardstock spray-cemented to a thickness of chip-board)
• Use the outline(s) from the worksheet to cut the piece to shape

Create Cushions

• Cut out cushions from 1/4 inch or thinner foam core or chip board laminated to just shy of 1/4″ thickness
• Use the outline(s) from the worksheet as template
• Trim or sand over all sharp corners to form 1″ scale fillet
• Use filler (joint compound, spackle, water putty, or similar) to fill seams or foam-core edges if needed.
• Sand & texture & paint

Assemble

• Assemble the “wood” portions, then paint. Add pre-painted cushions.
• Place arms upside down on table and assemble upside down so that gravity helps line up and hold joints together while drying.
• Use craft glue to edge-glue sides & back to bottom of arms and to legs
• Use small amount of tape to hold while gluing
• Position front and glue in place (not that it is glued 6″ in scale from the bottom of legs.  Create a jig or use tape to hold carefully in position while glue cures.
• Use thin coat of cyanoacrylate (super) glue to give the chair a stiffness and firmness that will make it more durable and hold up to paint. Make sure to do this step in the Loading Dock! the fumes will be obnoxious and potentially dangerous in the enclosed space of BPAC 102.
• Sand with very fine sandpaper (400 grit) , then paint.

Students have the opportunity to work in-class on the project for about an hour-and-a-half or less.  This gives them the opportunity to ask questions or ask for individualized instruction and demonstration of the techniques that they need to learn and employ.  The exercise probably takes up to 3 or more hours for most students, so they must schedule out-of-class time to use the Design Lab and the equipment that it contains (or to work on the exercise on their own at home with their own tools).

The finished model is a handsome piece of scale furniture in the style of a Stickly-designed Arts & Crafts armchair.

1/2″ = 1′-0″ Scale Stickley-Style Arts & Crafts Chair

Meanwhile, that’s enough for now! Have fun!  But be safe!

SJM

Vectorworks Projects for Teaching CADD to Liberal Arts Undergrad Students

In 2008 I introduced a course that instructed Simpson College students in the use of Vectorworks (one of the small handful of standard computer aided drafting programs used by theatrical designers).  I created the course  as a May Term offering with the hopes that it could become a permanent catalog course. When the College introduced a new curriculum a couple of years ago, the faculty of Theatre Simpson rearranged our entire curriculum.  While the new curriculum had even less opportunity in it fo the introduction of a permanent CADD than the previous one,  I took the opportunity to introduce systematic instruction of Vectorworks to Theatre students by spreading the CADD instruction among all of the courses in the design/tech curriculum. This may not be as impressive as it sounds. There are a whole 4 courses in the Design/Tech curriculum.

THTR 121: Technical Production, calls upon students to undertake a survey of all aspects of technical production.  In the course, students learn the basics of tool use, theatrical construction, rigging, theatrical hardware, electrics, lighting,  sewing, scene painting, makeup and drafting.  My colleague, Rick Goetz, who became the instructor for this course teaches the drafting portion by introducing the students to hand-drawn drafting techniques, drawing an orthographic drawing of a simple platform.  Then students are introduced to the basics of CADD after a demonstration of the program by having them reproduce the drawing using Vectorworks.

THTR 123: Introduction to Design for the Stage requires students to spend three to four weeks working on a series of tutorials designed to give them a broad understanding of the many palates, tools and constraints that give Vectorworks such power and flexibility.  Following that, through a series of exercises, they create a floor plan, and from elevations extrude that plan producing a perspective view of the resultant white model using Renderworks.  They then refine an analogue printed version the white model perspective using standard graphic techniques to produce a colored rendering.

Example of Arts & Craft Chair & Lamp with textures and lighting effects

THTR 223: Techniques for Set and Costume Designers, calls upon students to spend a quarter of the semester practicing with the Vectorworks/ Renderworks program, producing along the way, a floor plan, wall elevations, and a fully extruded and textured model of a chair  They learn to use and create Resources including Renderworks Textures and Image Shaders and to produce and render lighting effects .  The final CADD project consists of creating a fully extruded, textured and lighted model and perspective rendering of an Arts & Crafts inspired interior setting.

 

Fully Textured Arts & Crafts Set Rendering from THTR 223

THTR 221: Lighting and Sound, (a course that has yet to be offered with the CADD augmented material will find the students exploring the power of Vectorworks by drawing light plots and to utilizing the visualization power of Spotlight in the lighting design process.

While I believe that many of the students are coming a lot further in their understanding and mastery of Vectorworks, Renderworks, and Spotlight with this method (where the basic skills are revisited several times over a couple of years and where the exercises and projects challenge the students to push themselves), we have encountered some difficulties.  Since that initial course offering in 2008 when I convinced the college to purchase 10 licenses of the software, Vectorworks  been updated 5 times.  Furthermore, instead of desktop computers in one of the regular teaching labs, we are using them on computers in a PC laptop lab which receives little direct supervision from the Information Services personnel.  Additionally, students have begun taking advantage of the publisher Nemetschek’s  liberal policy of free downloads of the Vectorworks software  for students.  Therefore, many of the students have downloaded 2012 and 2013 versions of the program onto their personal laptops while the lab is still equipped with the 2008 iteration.  This all leads to a bit of extra chaos as I run my professional copy on a Mac and as files saved in more recent formats are unreadable by the earlier editions.  Finally, as anyone who knows the software, Vectorworks has a rather steep learning curve once you begin to work with more than the most basic tools (and even the most basic operations can go horribly wrong when the wrong constraint is active or visibility set for the wrong class or layer of the drawing).

Meanwhile, that’s enough for now! Have fun!  But be safe!

SJM

Stage Drapes and Fullness Calculations

I blogged a couple of years ago about the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) Region 5 festival and the event that I began running at the region 5 festival a couple of years ago.  The event is called Stage Crew Showdown. This year it was held on the campus of The University of Nebraska in Lincoln Nebraska on Sunday, January 20 and Monday, January 21.  The event consists of teams of 4 students representing their schools who face off in relay-race style heats performing tasks common to various areas of technical theatre.  Events include  hanging, and focussing a lighting instrument, tying knots, a costume quick-change, a prop setup-relay race, and cutting tie lines and hanging a border at the correct fullness.  It is the last event that is the subject of today’s blog.

The event description for the event follows:

• Teams are provided with a border of a specific width and a specific length of tie line.
• Team members will cut the tie line into the correct number of equal lengths.
• The ties will be properly attached to the border
• the border will be tied onto a batten, centered and with the required fullness tied in.
• The fullness is chosen by the judges immediately prior to the event and  may include %50, %75, or %100.
• The event is timed, then seconds are added to the score based upon the following deficiencies (if any apply)
• Major Evaluation Criteria:  Tool safety, Attachment process, Conformity of tie-line lengths, Placement with appropriate fullness on batten, Completion of task

This year, I committed to providing all competitors with pdf scans of the judges’ official score sheets so that they might learn from mistakes to improve future performance.  I did so earlier this week.  One of the team leaders requested clarification on the matter of fullness.  Particularly, this team leader was frustrated by the lack of information on how to calculate fullness in the literature. Neither the Backstage Handbook    nor any  of the standard texts reportedly contain such information.     I responded to her with the following email (text paraphrased below)

I know that fullness can be confusing, and there was an unofficial standard out there several years ago  that is not considered industry standard and that confuses the issue.  It doesn’t help that the unofficial (wrong)  standard seems to make better mathematical sense than the “official” one.

The most reliable explanation of fullness that I have found is on the Rose Brand web site at http://www.rosebrand.com/fabric-stage-curtains-backdrops/Curtain-Fullness.aspx?rl=tnd

This site provides  less of an “equation” than an “explanation”.

What follows, is my interpretation of that explanation:

 In a nutshell, fullness is expressed as the amount of EXTRA fabric that is sewn or tied into the width of the finished drape.

Hence, 100% fullness is the width of the finished drape PLUS  and extra 100% of the finished drape width.

In this example, if a leg started out at 12′ wide,  and you were to need to tie it to 100% fullness, you need to create a kind of reverse engineered version of the explanation that Rose Brand publishes to explain fabric width required for sewin-in fullness in order to figure out how wide the drape would be with the correct fullness tied-in. My version of the equation is below:

Tied width (X) + 100% fullness (X*100%) =Actual width (12′)

or

X + (X*1) = 12′

or

2X= 12′

or

X=6′

Thus, a 12′ flat-sewn leg tied to 100% fullness would be tied to a 6′-0″ width

Similarly, a 6′ wide leg with sewn-in fullness of 100% would require a 12′ width of fabric.

Substitute 50% (.5) or 75% (.75) into the equation for 50% & 75% fullness respectively,

Using this formula, a 12′ flat-sewn drape tied with 50% fullness would be tied to 8′ and a 12′ flat-sewn drape tied with 75% fulness would be tied to approximately 6′ 10 1/4″

The diagram below illustrates some of the common fullness variations

And you thought that you’d never use that Algebra that you learned in 9th grade!

Meanwhile, that’s enough for now! Have fun!  But be safe!

SJM

Alice’s Trip: Projection on a Budget 2

This is a follow-up to last week’s post concerning the ongoing planning of a projection element for the upcoming production of Alice’s Trip at Theatre Simpson.

At the moment we have identified 2 projectors which we intend to use for the side screens.  These projectors are  PowerLite Epson 6110i projectors. PowerLite 6110i Specifications Sheet (PDF). Since our budget is tight, we need to make them work.  They are rated to produce 3500 lumens.  This is bright compared to the standard classroom-style projector, but since theatrical projectors are often rated at 5000 to 10,000 lumens according to the panel from 1012 USITT workshop Static and Video Projection of Scenery on your Stage they will not be overly bright.  Therefore, we need to maximize their impact.  This can be done by placing them as close to the screen as the optics will permit  and by utilizing as much of their image as efficiently as possible.

To the left is a diagram that illustrates the size an aspect ratio of these projectors used in the traditional landscape format.  The pale yellow square indicates the 4×3 native aspect ratio of the projector.  In order to achieve the 13′-9″ height of the screen, the projector must be approximately 28′-8″ from the screen.  Notice that this results in a width of approximately 18′-4″ and a whole lot of wasted image and loss of brightness.

Meanwhile, the illustration to the right shows the same screen and projector.  The difference is that the projector is placed upon its side generating a 3×4 aspect ratio.  In this case, the projector can be as close as 25′ from the screen.  In addition to a reduction in the backstage distance needed for this effect, the closer proximity harnesses a greater percentage of the available lumens by utilizing a larger percentage of the projected image area.

The plan to the left illustrates both throw distances.  Notice that the 25′ distance illustrated by the green lines and representing the side-mounted portrait-formatted projection barely fits in the available backstage space. Meanwhile the 28′-9″ throw distance of the landscape-oriented projector (shown in blue) exceeds the available backstage space.  The illustration conjectures the use of a mirror to bend the projected image, effectively increasing the throw distance.  It is also possible to replace the standard zoom lens provided with the projectors with a short-throw lens.  However, since we don’t currently own such lenses, the additional cost to purchase or to rent them is prohibitive.

The central screen offers additional challenges.  The first challenge is that we have yet to identify a projector for it.  Since we will have to rent or borrow this projector, this fact may give us some flexibility, including the possibility of renting a brighter projector and/or a wide-angle lens. Another challenge is the fact that like the side screens, this screen is also taller than it is wide as seen to the right.  Therefore, it also does not conform to the standard native landscape format of most projectors.  At approximately 16′ high x 12′ wide, it is about the same aspect ratio as a standard projector except that this orientation requires the center  projector to be mounted sideways as well (complicating the content creation).  The center screen hangs 19′ downstage of the backstage wall.  Since projectors with standard lenses (such as the two Epson projectors already identified) require a full 25′ to project an image of 16′ x 12′, I calculate that in addition to mounting the projector on its side, we will need to reflect the image off a mirror of approximately 3’6″ wide and nearly 4′-8″ high mirror in order to achieve the appropriate size.  This is illustrated in the floor plan above and to the left.

Though landscape format (as shown at right) would simplify the installation by allowing us to mount the projector in its standard way, the throw distance required is about 33′-4 and this would require a mirror of around 8′-0″ width and 4′-9″ height.  Since such a mirror is prohibitively large, and since a large percentage of the available brightness would be falling outside of the screen (and would, therefore, be wasted), this option is probably not feasible.

We are also exploring our front-projection options for the center screen.  Used as a front projection screen, both the fabric of the rear projection screen and the light-colored profile flat representing swagged drapery that surrounds it could serve as a single projection surface. The front of the lighting booth (as seen in the section view ab0ve) offers the most likely position for a  projector to be mounted in order to project images on this surface.  At that position, the throw would be around 55′. If we do use this position, the standard
medium/long throw zoom lens should be able to project the needed 18′ high x 16′ wide image.  If the projector were installed in normal landscape orientation, the image would be 24′ wide in order to achieve the needed 18′ height.

An unfortunate consequence of this is that the edges of the projected image in landscape orientation extend well past the edges of the composite projection surface.  While this would mean that some of the image would fall upon black drapes and probably not be too much of a distraction, the placement of the side screens is likely to cause them to catch this extra image width, resulting in unsightly distraction.  This is illustrated in the plan above and to the left.

By orienting the front-projection projector mounted on the booth-front position on its side we can limit the problems caused by the edges of the landscape-oriented image and zoom the image to correspond to the 16′ width of the central projection surface (as shown in the diagram to the left).  In this case, the extra image would fall above, and/or below the projection surface and avoid catching the side screens altogether.

We can see, therefore that the most efficient use of all 3 projectors will be in portrait orientation.  While the projectors for the side screen will definitely be behind the screens providing rear projection, we have the option of projecting from either the front or the rear for the center screen/projection surface.  It is unclear to me what problems this side-mounting of the projectors might cause with their proper operation.  However, considering the shape of all of the screens (all being higher than they are wide) and the need to maximize the lumen output of the fairly dim non-theatrical grade projectors, I do not see an alternative.  Only time will tell if this will work.

In a later post, I intend to explore some of the software that we might use to deliver content to the projectors, as well as to describe and link to some very powerful software for theatrical projection that we will not be able to employ for this project owing to the cost that accompanies such powerful and specialized programs.

Meanwhile, that’s enough for now! Have fun!  But be safe!

SJM