Do you love the theater? When you’re watching a play, you are witnessing a kind of magic at work. As much as the actors take center stage and embrace the spotlight, a crucial part of the live performance happens off-stage. From stage hands to the sound crew, these are the people who make sure that…

This file is also available in the Technical Theatre Roles Unit and Theater I-IV lesson plan bundle.

MAKE IT LOOK REAL! The scenic artist is responsible for painting all the scenery and sometimes that requires some skills. This page is ...

Synopsis Expand/Collapse Synopsis Here is an indispensable, nuts-and-bolts guide to putting on a stunning, low-budget show in less than 40 days! The Perfect Stage Crew explains the pitfalls to avoid and provides solutions to the most common as well as most complex stage performance problems. Readers without Broadway-size budgets and resources will learn the low-cost, low-tech approaches to painting scenery, building sets, hanging lights, setting cues, and operating sound. They’ll also find crucial guidance for generating publicity, preparing tickets, technical rehearsals, and more.

A properly placed and laid out prop table is an invaluable help to the cast of a show, as they often need to get on stage quickly and in the dark, and just don’t have the time to go looking f…

Cad stand-up comedy themed people groups cad blocks for your architecture & design projects File Type: CadFile Size: 8 MBFormat: AI, DWG, PDF, PNGThis product is a part of a bundle. Check out the full collection here! Technical details: All vector drawings are resizable. You can easily change the colors and backgrounds of AI files in Adobe Illustrator or DWG files in Autodesk Autocad.Software compatibility: Autodesk Autocad 2013 or newer.Content: This pack includes common style recolorable and resizable cad blocks. Suitable for interior projects.About Cads: People, furniture, plants, and other scales are mostly used in sections, elevations, and plans by architects and designers. Tags: human scales, group, event, show, clapping, watching, sitting, viewing, stand-up, comedy, open mic, laughing, audience, microphone

A guide to building a hard-backed theatre flat for your stage set.

This presentation (in PDF and PPT format) was created on Google Slides and covers the basics of color theory as needed for technical theater design. With the exception of the last slide (which refers to researching your period for specific color implications) everything in it is applicable to genera...

Immersing viewers in the whimsical world of Henrik Ibsen’s most acclaimed play, Christian Lacroix Habille Peer Gynt pour la Comédie-Française displays costumes from the famed theater company’s spectacular production, brought to life by fashion design icon Christian Lacroix. Lauded as one of history’s most extravagant designers, Lacroix is renowned for his contributions to the fashion world. With exuberant colors and luxurious detailing, his work is synonymous with rich elegance — and extends beyond the runway to the stage.

Six brand new drama warm-ups with detailed instructions on seven pages!

Prop Running Template perfect for remote learning, technical projects and in class productions. Perfect for helping you design for your own productions, to be assigned to a student prop designer or stage manager to get them started in the process , or as part of a larger prop design project for ...

An old Theater, reimagined by MVRDV, combines a renovation of the historic architecture, keeping with the preservation, with the modernisation

The GHS fall play, ‘Clue: On Stage,’ which ran from Thursday the 17th to Saturday the 19th, proved a unique challenge for the theater program in terms of technical design. The murder mystery is set in a large mansion and requires a series of secret passages and hidden tunnels, as well as ‘choreographed tomfoolery,’ involving...

This packet contains information and activities for students to explore various acting spaces through areas on the stage and types of stages. A quiz is included to test students' understanding. ...

How to Make A Revolving Stage A human-powered turntable for low budget, low tech theater companies. by Peter Konopak, Allan Robins, and James Wojciehowski Back in November of 2010 my friends Alan and Jim, my wife, my son, and my son's theater teacher/ director/ sister-a-different-set-of-parents and I were all sitting around the dinner table when sister announced it was her intention to stage the Broadway version of Les Miserables. This surprised none of us, because she has a penchant for doing big, no-BIG things. She said she wanted to do the things right, complete with the famous barricade and revolving stage. How, we wondered, was she to accomplish this? "Yes", she wondered, "How are we going to do this?" And so it began. The first thing to do was to search the web and see what had already been done. This turned up precious little. I am, however, indebted to the Drama Department at BHS in Burlington, WV for the pictures of their turntable. It gave us a good place to start. What follows is the plan for making a sixteen foot diameter turntable, drive mechanism, and ramp assembly. First, the physical plant of the stage is 46 feet wide, with two-eight foot wings, total width 64 feet. The stage is 26 feet wide from psychlorama to footlights. The floor is hardwood (Inviolate) with a 1/4" laminar covering. The play needed three feet between the turntable and the footlights. The turntable must, perforce sit ON the stage, may not be screwed to it, and be low enough that stage pieces may be easily rolled on and off. Ramps would have to be designed to allow this. At first we thought we would be able to motorize this thing, but looking at the cost of motors strong enough to drive the table soon put that idea out of our heads. We needed to keep the cost of the turntable as low as possible, the drama department has no budget; all expenses are paid with the proceeds of previous plays. Once we told the director that she was limited to manually operated equipment, an idea which she was ok with, we started working on the idea of just how it was going to turn. The director wanted as large a disc as possible: we settled on 16 feet. This gave a few feet in front of the footlights for actors and a few feet behind for set pieces and movement behind. It was also convenient because of the dimensions of sheets of plywood, and simplified construction. Borrowing heavily from Burlington High School’s design, we came up with the following: Stage plot for Les Mis @ Sherman E. Burroughs HS A center piece of 1/2 ( 15/32’s actually, nobody makes 1/2 “ plywood anymore, chiseling cheapskates) cut into a four foot circle. In the very center, screwed in from the bottom and glued to the top, is a 18” 2x8, with a galvanized 3/4 female pipe flange screwed onto it. A 4 inch galvanized nipple was used a spindle, around which the table would turn. Illus. A Center piece with spindle Next we took 1x4 composite “wood” boards( Next time I’d use Doug fir) 1 x 4 and cut them 6 ft lengths. These would radiate out from the center at 45 degree angles. Illus. B Spokes and Spider Next we connected each of the spokes with two stringers of more 1 x 4. One stringer joined the outside edge of all spokes together. The other stringer was placed 3 feet from the centerpiece. The completed structure resembled a spiderweb, and was duly christened so. We realized that the spiderweb would adequately support the circular turntable along the chords of the circle, but not at the circumference. We secured 6” “spurs” to the midpoints of each of the outside stringers, which would then give support to the circumference of the table. In hindsight we decided that triangles would be better, as they would be less likely to be pulled away from the stringer. ( This happened more than once, if the drive rope came off the gears, we called it being casterated. Illus. C Spider web with triangular stingers Next we attached 90 , 2-1/2 swivel casters. 4 on the centerpiece, six on each spoke, one on each of the inner stringers midpoint, two on the on the outside stringer equidistant from the midpoint, and one on each spur. We don’t recommend using casters with locks. Illus. D Nail plates at Spider joints. Each of the spokes and stringers was secured with 3 x6 nail plates. We used 3/4 “ coarse thread drywall screws. Also, for ease of reconstruction every joint was labelled. Each spoke was given a letter, with each stringer given a number. Care should be taken to not set the screws too deep, as a stripped screw doesn’t hold as well as one which isn’t. Illus. E A better view of the spider and spindle Illus. F Note: we didn't use the triangular spikers in the middle of each stringer. I advise YOU to use them. So spiderweb is constructed. Now we construct the top. We used 15/32” flakeboard rather than plywood. Plywood is much stronger than flakeboard, but also much heavier and more expensive. The flakeboard bowed slightly at the edges when there was a heavy load directly on them, but for the most part they were strong enough. And with a manual drive, weight, particularly inertia is something to consider. We laid the sheets out in this pattern. Then we put a second layer on top of the first, but the pattern was rotated 90 degrees, that way no joints were identical from top layer to bottom, which greatly increased the strength. Every joint was covered with gaffers tape. No glue was used because the director wanted to be able to tear the stage down and use it again. Illus. G This shows Humpty cut out and joints taped. Below are the patterns for setting out the lumber preparatory for cutting. We shot 1" coarse thread drywall screws through the top and into the bottom, every screw was six inches from its nearest neighbor NOTE: because the material was 15/32 rather than half inch, we were forced to grind the top 1/16 “ inch of every screw. This was necessary because the screws were now too long, and would protrude onto the roller surface. Next, we used a piece of pipe with a nail through it and a sharpie at the other end, and set up a compass, and traced a circle. A sabre saw was used to cut a 16 foot, two ply disc. A 3/4 inch hole was drilled through the center point for the center spindle to fit through. The two parts, base and top were christened Humpty and Dumpty. Illus. H This shows how the pieces overlaid oneanother. This picture is actually taken at tear down. Illus. I This shot shows the two plys of wood, the lay of the rope in the cog, and the cog itself. In this picture you can see how the two plys fit together. A piece of doweling was stuck in the center flange, and with one strong thespian at every point of the clock, Humpty was carefully lifted and laid on Dumpty, the dowel marking where the center was. The dowel was removed, and the spindle was inserted and screwed into place. Voila. The table is complete. Now we had to design the manually powered gear drive.* Here is the complete table, with ramps. Humpty looks scuffed, because this picture was taken after 3 weeks of rehearsals and 8 shows. Illus. J Completed table & ramps Illus. K 78 feet of rope with notes & splices visible As mentioned earlier, powering this by mechanical means was out of the question. So the job devolved to manual labor. We decided to use 1/2 inch cotton/poly multistrand rope. The rope was knotted every foot originally, but we revised that to every three feet. The rope was spliced into one continuous loop by doubling the bitter ends into two small eyes, one of which was threaded through the other, then wrapped with twine and taped. We did not use eyes because we wanted the splices to have a very low profile. The rope had two sides, a “feed” side, which was downstream from the guy pulling the rope, and “pull” side, which was from wherever the point of friction was to the puller. On the circumference of the disk, humpty, we screwed every foot, a cog made out of dadoed and beveled 2 x 4. Each piece was 6 inches long. Each screw had a pilot hole to keep the wood from splitting when screwed into the bottom of humpty. Cog with rope cup, screw points, showing bevel When screwed in with the “rope cup” facing outboard, the bevel made the rope cup cant upward, making it less likely for the rope to fall out of the cog. One of the knots on the rope would catch the trailing edge of one of the cogs, the point of friction, and the disk turned. The number of casters made the whole stage relatively easy to turn. When empty, a 16 year old girl was able to turn it overspeed( 30 -35 rpm). When the stage was loaded with the props for the barriacde scene for Les Mis, and 14 actors of varying sizes it took a strong hand to move it at speed, which was one full turn in about 30 seconds. tensioners bind point We soon discovered that the knots were getting bound in the cogs at the point where the rope left the disk. We improvised a series of tensioners. Each was composed of a cast iron wheel, which at some time might have held either a volleyball pole or a lighting rig. They were threaded to 1 1/2. So we placed them at three points on the loop. They made it possible for one person to move the table without a second person keeping proper tension on the “feed” About this time you are asking yourself” How did you keep the puller out of sight”. In this theater there is a void behind the psych. We were able to raise the psych a foot or so, since it was behind Illus. L Backstage hub of tensioner assy. We DID screw this one lightly into the laminate flooring. The tape shows the proper angle of attack for the rope out to the stage. a 20 x 45 foot canvas flat, and unseen, that was no problem. Fortunately, too, the canvas flat was ancient and we made a rent in it about 6 inches high. It was through that tear that pull side was pulled behind the backdrop and psych, and then fed back out to the table. This is the space where the puller sat. You can see the pipe nipple with the rope around it. Illus. M This is the heart of the tensioner assembly. These we did screw lightly down into the laminar stage. We were concerned about a trip hazard, but we rehearsed with it enough that the actors got used to it, and the director moved her blocking downstage from it. Illus. N Another view. You can see the two slits in the backdrop. When the stage was lit for production you could see them, but only if you were looking for them and knew where to look. The very last part of the stage were the ramps. They were made of 2 x 6 x 6 foot which were ripped diagonally, and then had two layers of flake board screwed to them. The leading edges of the ramps were sanded as close to flush as we could make them, to allow large set pieces to be wheeled onto them. Illus. O The leading edge of the ramp. Illus. P Inside front view of the ramps. Illus. Q The Ramp and Stage meet. The tape was there to let the Stage manager see when the table was set to its optimum position. They were also cut on the trailing edges to fit as closely as possible to match the arc of the stage. There had to be a gap of about 1/2 “ between the ramps and the stage , that was unavoidable, due to the imprecision of the cutting of the ramps and Humpty. The techies knew to get a good head of steam up the ramp with set pieces, and all worked out. Just as an aside, the thing worked just fine! And it has been taken down and is being stored, ready for use again. Supplies: 24 sheets of 4x8 31/32" flakeboard. 128 lf 1x4 pine or Doug fir 96 2 1/2 non-locking, swivel casters 8 2x 6 x 8' pine or Doug fir 1 sheet 31/32 plywood ac 32 4 x 6" nail plates 5# 1" drywall screws gaffers tape paint Total cost @ $ 900 ( 2010) So there you have it. My friends and I hope this will help you. What you do to this will be of more than passing interest to us all. Peter Konopak Theater Dad for Burroughs High School Drama Department Ridgecrest, CA

Sound Cue Template perfect for remote learning, technical projects , in class productions, and productions. Perfect for helping you design for your own productions, to be assigned to a student sound designer or stage manager to get them started in the process , or as part of a larger sound design pr...

Google Docs for Easy Editing! Perfect introduction for set design for elementary students with our engaging and interactive Set Design Worksheet, specially crafted for elementary students! This resource is the perfect introduction to the art of set design, allowing young minds to explore their creativity and bring their theatrical visions to life.Can be adapted to work with almost any existing script or existing story. Key Features: 1. Students will draw a stage and let their imaginations run wild as they envision their play's setting. 2. As budding directors, students will choose a play title and decide where their story unfolds - a magical forest, a bustling city, or a cozy home. 3. With enthusiasm, young artists will sketch the scenery, providing the perfect set environment for their theater masterpieces. 4. Students will brainstorm and draw props for actors to enhance their performances. 5. From twinkling stars to falling leaves, young designers will create imaginative special effects or lights or sound that add enchantment to their theatrical world. 6. In the final step, students will bring their set design to life with vibrant colors, making their stage an eye-catching work of art. This fun and educational Set Design Worksheet encourages collaborative learning, boosts confidence, and fosters a love for theater in young hearts. Perfect for classroom use or homeschooling, this resource complements visual arts, language arts, and drama curriculums, providing a comprehensive and engaging learning experience. #Teacher Pay Teachers (TPT) Resource#Elementary Set Design Worksheet#Theater Arts and Scenic Design#Creative Stagecraft Activity#Visual Arts and Drama Integration#Set Design Lesson Plan#Theater Production and Design for Kids#Drama and Visual Arts Curriculum#Engaging Set Design Activities#Student-Led Set Design Project#Theater Set and Props Creation#Fun and Educational Theater Resources#Elementary Theater Arts Activity#Theater and Design Collaboration#Stage Design for Elementary Students

Ever wondered who creates the realistic sounds in movies? Click to learn more about the role of a Foley artist in film and how to become one!

Source “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” ~ Mark Twain One of the most fun things about working on a show is trying on your costume for the first time. …

Cooperative games save our sanity when emotions run high. Here are the cooperative games we've tried and loved!

Proscenium Stage Set Design Template perfect for remote learning, technical projects , in class productions, and productions. Perfect for helping you design for your own productions, to be assigned to a student set designer or stage manager to get them started in the process , or as part of a larger...