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Design Layout

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URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3984
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Topic: Design Layout

Posted By: codadiva
Subject: Design Layout
Date Posted: 4/29/09 at 7:23pm

We are starting a new venue in a small town, well small to me, 35K people. We have a great artistic community. We are renting a large room that is part of a multi purpose room. The building use to be a vocational school.

We have about 110 ft by 29 ft room. About 12 ft will be used for storage and small set building. But the rest is really foreign to me. With too many options to think about do you have suggestions on theater set up.

What size stage do you think is best for this intimate area. We are doing more lounge type chairs or something that is super fun, since we plan on starting small. Some of our initial thoughts were sectionals and such, but those are too big.

Ok back to my real reason for this post. What size stage would you suggest for this space. The ceilings are 14ft. Do I have to consider the design of the stage before getting some initial lights and sound equipment?

What kind of thoughts should I have when planning the stage area for lights and sounds. The building is a cement structure with carpet floors.

Any help in any of this thought process is completely appreciated!!
Thanks so much
Lisa

Replies:

Posted By: David McCall
Date Posted: 5/02/09 at 11:40am

What is the ceiling? Open trusses? Drop ceiling? plaster?

What about dressing rooms and/or space for a "green room"?

Lights and can be borrowed or rented. So, the important thing there is access to power to run them and places to hang them. In a small room it makes some sense to plan to use the little "4-pack" style dimmers that plug into standard wall outlets. Each one requires it's own 20 amp outlet. You can rent these. I think it makes some sense to buy a small lighting console (24 channels?) just so you have something reliable that you know how to use. Dimmers are dimmers, so you can buy a few channels at a time. Needs for lights vary widely too.

Perhaps it would make sense to buy something like an ETC smart-fade control and 2-3 x 4-packs. Half a dozen 6"fresnels and 4 x 36 degree source-4 ellipsoidal spots. Then you need enough cable to hook it all up and places to hang the lights. This will give you a good start for simple shows and you can buy or rent as needed.

Sound equipment can be borrowed or rented as well, and the requirements vary from show to show. You can always use a CD player and I would go for a simple disco style player because it is designed to be cued reliably. This is a big improvement over consumer players. For small sound effects and preshow music, good consumer level amp and speakers will do for starters.

With the room being so narrow, you will have a pretty narrow deep audience. You may need to have risers for the folks past the "5th row". you might consider not building a stage and customize as needed.

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David M

Posted By: codadiva
Date Posted: 5/03/09 at 11:10pm

David,
Thank you both for your time and your suggestions. The cement ceiling will have the drop ceiling tiles. Does that change your thinking any?

Now I have something to bring to the table for further discussion. Thanks so much!

Lisa

Posted By: David McCall
Date Posted: 5/04/09 at 11:01am

Cement ceiling is tough because it doesn't give you easy ways to attach things like lighting bars to it. Talk to the contractor about your options for putting something up there that you can hang stuff from. One possibility might be Unistrut. It is a channel much like the tracks we use for travelers (curtains that open and close). There are special "nuts" and other accessories that can be used to attach things to it. Unistrut can be used to hang lights directly to it or as hanging points to suspend stuff from.

I'd suggest that you have a few lighting designers come by to look at your room and make suggestions for lighting positions they would like to see. I would want positions on the walls as well as the ceiling or maybe even instead of the ceiling.

If it were me I might try to avoid the drop ceiling. It will take away too much of your height and cause your lighting angles to be too shallow. Definitely avoid the drop ceiling over the stage area.

You may find that the room is too reverberant, especially without the drop ceiling. Once you have your lighting positions defined, you might be able to put in sections of drop ceiling in areas that won't get in the way. Perhaps the sections or clouds could be at an angle to get them out of the way of the lights.

There are acoustical treatments that can used to adjust the acoustics. Heavy drapes will help. There are also panels that can be attached to the wall or ceiling to reduce the reverberation. They are usually more effective if mounted in such a way that there is air space between the panels and the wall.

Where are you?

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David M

Posted By: codadiva
Date Posted: 5/05/09 at 12:48am

I really appreciate your info. I do have a professional looking at it now. Love the suggestions for the ceiling and other ideas. We have someone measuring the acoustic design - meaning where we should put the second wall in the area to get the best sound. This isn't my cuppa tea, so I'm trying to just get info to share at the discussions.

We are in Wisconsin - south of Green Bay. You?

Posted By: David McCall
Date Posted: 5/05/09 at 12:51pm

I'm in Wakefield, 15 miles north of Boston, MA.

In a rented space, I might consider a temporary wall built in such a way that you can take it apart and move it later. Having said that, you will need a green room and that will need good sound isolation so the audience doesn't hear the off-stage actors whooping it up. Some consideration of sound leaking out when the door to the green room is opened.

Try to get opinions from some people that actually work in venues rather than relying on contractors that have stuff they need to sell.

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David M