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Temporary make stage white


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Hi.

 

I've got a director who wants to make the middle of the stage white (roughly 1/3 of the stage). However, I've got a very short get-in & get-out and so don't have enough time to paint the black stage white & repaint it black.

 

Instead, I'd like to attach a thin piece of white painted wood/white lino to 1/3 of the stage. Does anyone have any recommendations of:

 

  • benefits/cons of using wood vs lino
  • type of wood to use
  • how to temporarily attach wood/lino to the stage without damaging it.

Thanks for any tips.

 

Edit: I should have also mentioned that my budget is approx £300 but ideally as cheap as possible.

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if using wood: I would suggest 6mm or 9mm thick sheets of plywood or MDF.

lino or ply/MDF can be fixed with double-sided tape under the joins and gaffer tape around the edges. however, some heavy duty double-sided tape can leave a nasty residue behind. So-called 'NEC approved' tape is more venue-friendly, but there is still a chance that glue residue will be left behind. You can get residue removal sprays etc like this.

 

pros of wood: easy enough to find, easy to paint, but will probably need more than one coat. cons: quite heavy, needs a transit van to transport.

pros of lino: not too hard to find, you may find white lino thereby avoiding any need for painting. A standard width is 4m which would need a long wheelbase van or bigger, but you could find it in 2m widths, so a small van would be OK, or even a big car. Depends what else you have to transport, you may have a big van anyway?. Cons: proper "dance lino" is very expensive - but you may find a product designed for household use much cheaper - there are internet lino shops that offer very competitive prices. household lino can be a bit fragile, and may mark easily so may not be suitable for high impact activity .

 

my preference would probably be for lino, simply because pre-painting sheets of ply or MDF can be a bit of a pain if you don't have access to a large floor area to lay it out on to paint it all in one go.

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How long is the show in the venue? Is it a one nighter, a week or a month? White wood would need re-painting frequently over a longer period of time, whereas lino / dance floor could just be mopped as part of the daily routine. If it's a shorter show perhaps wood would work out better for cost?
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From experience of 4 different productions using white dance floor / lino, varying from cheapy household stuff to top range Harlequin floor, it is only really really white the moment it's unrolled for the first time. It will mark, no matter how careful you are. Even if the crew wear 'bootees' or walk around in their socks, the actors' shoes will mark it. There are various techniques for cleaning white dance floor but nothing is 100% effective and it's quite a lot of work.

 

Some directors/ designers accept this as inevitable and learn to live with it. Some don't.

 

So from my point of view, if you can use timber without the edges being a problematic trip hazard, it might make you life easier, as you can paint out scuffs and marks.

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Or even unpainted floor cloth. Not pure white, but off white and may provide more then enough contrast. Possibly just use NDFR calico if not heavy use. As pointed out above though, it'll need a different solution for dance than for most other uses.
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How long is the show in the venue? Is it a one nighter, a week or a month? White wood would need re-painting frequently over a longer period of time, whereas lino / dance floor could just be mopped as part of the daily routine. If it's a shorter show perhaps wood would work out better for cost?

 

It's a 1-week performance with a 1-day get-in. The show is approx 2.5 hours with 3 performances. There is no dancing - so light to moderate use.

 

 

 

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