I am curious about using certain colors of paint on a backdrop.....say red with a lot of black in it...then shining red light on it and revealing more of the painting than was visible with white light only.  Anyone have any experience with this?  I don't want to use black light but am considering some strobes.  The whole concept is pretty fuzzy right now....but I thought I'd see if anyone can share a little knowledge about the effect of colored lights on colors on the backdrop. 

Joan54, I would recomend doing some test pieces first. I belive that latex will act different that scenci paint. I like to do test pieces of all painted surfaces for the lighting designer. I use old scraps of sheet goods. ( i have some stached that I just reuse) This way you can test your lighting colors before you paint the set. Nothing is worse than painting a beautiful drop only to find it looks like doo doo with the lights on I have not tried what you are talking about. Let us know how it comes out.

 

Sorry Joan I didn?t realise that you have been working with just open white lighting & not with a colour lighting  palette.
As Shatcher suggests using colour samples of material of the set & costumes, to try out & tweek the mise en scene first is the best way to go.
Even making up a model of the set, which is considered old hat these days in community theatre, which actually works & will assist you with designing lighting & in many others ways as well. It doesn?t have to be flash in any way, it can be completely low tech, made with sticky tape & card/paper in a cardboard box. Using torch light or table lamps, with colour swatch gel pieces or colour off cut gels. This will give you an idea of how it will look & test colour choices.
I still use my sons old Lego set which I first used years ago, when he grew out of playing with it, for set & lighting design. Which works great using the building blocks, with cut out card as set pieces stuck to them. To conceptualise scene logistics, moves & the lighting states. Plus I enjoy playing with Lego anyway & he ain?t getting back now!
Also rather than going & buying a heap of colour gel stock, contact your local theatre venue & see if you can scavenge their rubbish bins. For old used gel you can recycle. Invariably because they use possibly large cut colour, which has been changed, because they have leached out or have hot spots or even from the roll off cuts. There is still plenty of good colour left, that can be cut up & used for smaller lens lamps.

 See if they have any spare gel swatch books knocking about, preferably the larger post card size or bigger ones. They will probably use Lee or Rosco, as I doubt you will be still using Cinemiod any more.
When you get the scraps use a white chinagraph pencil & mark the colour number on them.
If you end up setting up your own mini lighting system for your model, cut sets of gels, enough for a complete colour change of your rig, using a shoe box  to hold the sets, separated by cardboard dividers, tabbed with the corresponding colour number, which makes it easier for a quick change.
Like you would do normally in theatre with colour box files. Except the box ends are the same size as the gel frame, to fit each type of lantern used.
The old mini lighting rig I used in the garage, was made up with small used food & coffee cans. I rigged up torch globes with a switch system & run off batteries. It was originally loomed up, with just switchable control, until I was older & went to AC voltage using a series of glass jar salt water dimmers, but that was back in the 50?s before the advent of electronics.
{Disclaimer;- work on any mains voltage equipment should only be performed by a qualified & licensed electrician, further salt water dimmers are illegal & also known as ?Widow Makers? because they are lethal.}

As you use a specific stage, this makes it a lot easier to work to scale, rather than being generic. 1":12" would work well.
As for the material, I use whatever is at hand.
With the Lego blocks I mainly use them as the base to hold profiled set piece of cut & painted card, also the same with performers or for structures like rostra & the kind. As for the stage deck I use the Lego building mat to hold the base blocks & do moves. As for the boarders, legs, drops, drapes & fly pieces. I set up a skeleton frame with battens & the material to be used or painted. The Proscenium arch, teaser & tormentors were a ply cut out.
With yours as it would be some what larger & you could use dowelling for battens or even aluminium rods. So what ever works to help you experiment & play around is great.
It is always a good idea to get your own sparky/tech on board, who can look after the theatre lighting operation & the tech bump in.