Building Theatre Stages

What’s involved in creating and building theatre stages?  The first is the stage designer’s creative vision and the second is budget. Stage theatre supplies can range from scaffolding, to hold up backdrops (common in touring productions), rostra (for creating stage areas), lights (if not available) and so on. Indeed stage theatre supplies can include anything from these major requirements right the way down to the trusty old roll of multi-purpose Gaffer tape, ideal for holding sets together, stick down leads for health and safety purposes, to even holding costumes on in extreme circumstances.

The student of stage design should work to develop his or her artistic talent in the visual and decorative arts; exercise the imagination to create dramatic space, imagery and effects; acquire a broad-based knowledge of theatre arts and technical production; become very observant; practice drawing, painting, rendering, model-making, drafting and research; and develop a strong interest in the spoken or lyric theatre.

When you look at the stage you might think Oh there is just a couch there” but what you might not know is that it has been reinforced with steel, the pads might be completely reconstructed to give the actor the right amount of height that they need for that scene or maybe the couch is going to be stood on. So everything is altered even though it may look like an ordinary couch.” Often we have to totally change the color, rebuild, or reupholster.

Stage Sets and Design 

Looking out the window on Saturday morning did not bode well for an outdoor festival. Stage sets and design goes beyond mere set design and may need to incorporate such things as seating arrangements and rostra for a stage area. There are three different types of stage layout common in the west and these are ‘in the round’, the proscenium and the thrust. The thrust is when the acting area is surrounded on three sides, commonly this extends from a proscenium stage and is often used in music concerts and is an area where guitarist can ‘rock out’. If the show is touring then it is likely to mean that the set building and stage design is kept simple and light in order to facilitate rapid ‘get ins’ and ‘get outs’.

Sometimes touring sets require a lot more energy over all as they are put up and taken down at each venue. Conversely, a stationary theatrical event only needs to have the stage set up once and then taken down at the end of the run. Again the type of stage theatre supplies that you will need will vary from show to show. Queensryche was the next band scheduled on the Jack Daniels sponsored Main Stage, but it turned out that Of Mice & Men also ended up playing their earlier scheduled set on the Monster Main Stage across the field. Halestorm ended up playing a delayed and shortened set, while Ministry performed at the same time on the Jack Daniels stage.