Care for your floor...

[delnor]

I was wondering if anyone is in a theater where they clean and wax the floor before every proformance? I have been in a few that do that and I never really understood it. It makes the floor a tiny bit slippery and shiny looking (good for stained wood floors). The theater I was working in last has a black wooden stage that they paint black a few times each year. I was wondering what other stage care tips anyone has?

From my standpoint sweeping and moping before a show is a good general practice. Waxing I always thought was a little excessive. Anywho what do u all think?

[delnor]

Another thing I was wondering is who drills into thier floor? Some do and some don't it always depends on the type of flooring. I have noticed that some theaters lay down hard oak type floor and dont screw into it and others use spongy woods like pine because the wood fills in behind screw holes after a while.

[tm1000]

Originally Posted by delnor

The theater I was working in last has a black wooden stage that they paint black a few times each year.

That's the same thing we do in our theatre

Originally Posted by delnor

From my standpoint sweeping and moping before a show is a good general practice. Waxing I always thought was a little excessive. Anywho what do u all think?

We always sweep and mop (the tile), I would think waxing is a little excessive too because of the slippage (real word?) factor

[TechDirector]

haha thats funny!!! I think we only sweep our stage AFTER shows. We have a wood floor and the only time we mop it is when somebody spills something (like coke or paint). Maybe the custodians do ours. I don't know.

[dvsDave]

Originally Posted by TechDirector

haha thats funny!!! I think we only sweep our stage AFTER shows. We have a wood floor and the only time we mop it is when somebody spills something (like coke or paint). Maybe the custodians do ours. I don't know.

You should always sweep and mop the floor BEFORE the show. Why, you ask? The sheer amount of dust and other trash on the stage makes the stage floor (even if the floor is black) refract a huge amount of light. This if the show is taped, the upwards refraction of light is amplified on the tv by orders of magnitude. Most porfessional traveling theater troupes demand a very clean stage before they arrive. This is a standard practice of professional theater's everywhere.

[tm1000]

Originally Posted by dvsDave

You should always sweep and mop the floor BEFORE the show. Why, you ask? The sheer amount of dust and other trash on the stage makes the stage floor (even if the floor is black) refract a huge amount of light. This if the show is taped, the upwards refraction of light is amplified on the tv by orders of magnitude. Most porfessional traveling theater troupes demand a very clean stage before they arrive. This is a standard practice of professional theater's everywhere.

I would think mopping wood would warp it though?

[delnor]

Another thing to think about is saftey, most houses use nails or screws to fasten thier sets togther and unless you sweep you cant be sure you got them all off the floor. Saw dust is also slippery (far more then wax) if an actor steps on some durring a show it could cause them to stumble or fall and hurt themseves. Messing up the show or just injuring an actor. SWEEP SWEEP SWEEP! If you are in High School just find a freshman to sweep the floor, they love being pushed around... (get it pushed around ok im done with bad jokes for today)

[dvsDave]

Originally Posted by tm1000

I would think mopping wood would warp it though?

You don't use that much water and it would only warp if you left the stage wet.

[TheMockery]

Our resident TD won't let us paint the stage. It's about 45 years old and the wood is now flaking off due to both the age and the black paint used on it a while ago. Sweeping is about as good as it gets for our cleaning methods. I've never seen anyone mop the entire floor.

[delnor]

Theaters that dont have painted floors mop them. Moping the paint dosent help much but moping a natural wood grain floor makes it look that much cleaner and more professional.