Odd lighting angle help?

[v75vette]

Hello all,

I've been asked to a light a show for the community theatre. It's a decent enough space for a proscenium configuration. However the director wanted to do the show in the round. The play is "Spoon River' by the way. So here comes my list of problems. The building is rather old...

There are no permanently attached battens. All I have are 6 torms, 4 are 12ft and the other 2 are going to be I think 10ft. Now the really fun thing is that half of the "stage" is on the actual stage space and the other half is down in the house. The stage is 20'x20' and it's about half in the house and half on the stage. The house has a slight rake to it. I'm trying to keep the torms out of the way except I can hardly get any light on the acting areas without lighting up half the audience because of the angle and with the shallow angles the light's going to be right in the audience’s eyes.

From what I can figure I’m going to try to put a torm on each corner of the playing space and then two in the middle against the walls in the house.

My original idea was to use the two side torms only for fill light and the 4 corns for the main acting light. However now I'm thinking that it may be a better idea to use 4 torms in the middle of all the sides and then use the other two for specials from the corners.

If anybody has any ideas on placement and types of lights to use let me know. I have a decent budget to rent some lights. I have 11 40 degree shakes and 15 or so 6" fresnels.

I'll try and get some picture up tomorrow.

Thanks

[gafftaper]

Forget renting instruments rent some truss! Find a way to get light over the stage. Before our new theater, we did a lot of shows in this ballroom with 12' high drop ceilings. There's just no way to get decent light in the round if you can't shoot down at the actors from a high angle. If you're shooting a flat angle you'll find your options are blinding the audience on the other side of the stage or lighting the actors from the waist down. Furthermore if you can't get light overhead then the actors faces are dark from the other side of the stage. So if I were you, the first thing I would do is rent a better way of hanging lights. You could either hang something or rent something free standing... but much taller than what you have.

[v75vette]

Gafftaper,

What kind of truss would you recommend. Vincent Lighting systems is right down the road in cincy so I can get it pretty easily. I've just never dealt with truss before.

thanks

[gafftaper]

I'm not the truss guy either... Alex? Derek? WhatRigger? Bueller? Anybody but Van?

[Footer]

First, is there any rigging points over head at all, i.e. structural beams etc... I would say your best bet would be to deadhang some pipes if you can. If you can afford it truss and motors is nice, but a ladder and some pipe will also do. You have to get something overhead.

[v75vette]

It's a historical building. So i can't easily attach anything to the beams. I think they're mostly there for decorations and they've got a project planned to install some overhead pipes. It just hasn't happened yet because of funding.

So I'm going to go ahead and say that no there are no overhead rigging points. I was checking the vincet site for rentals. I can get 2.5' x12" box truss for 25$ a week, 5' x12" box truss for 35 a week, and 10' x12" box truss for 50 a week. Corner blocks are 35 a piece. So I can easily put up a 12" pipe on the sides in the house and then put 2 12" sections over the acting area. My only concern would then be making sure they don't fall over. Any ideas or help?

I'd only be putting at a max 16 lights up there. 11 or so shakes and some S4s.

[Pie4Weebl]

I would get someone from the company to come in look at your space and make suggestions, rigging is not something you should do on your own if you are not confident.

[gafftaper]

Originally Posted by Pie4Weebl

I would get someone from the company to come in look at your space and make suggestions, rigging is not something you should do on your own if you are not confident.

Great point Pie, I'm sure they would be happy to come in and make a recommendation.

[icewolf08]

I like the truss idea, if you can get it in the air. The people who have said to get help with rigging are right. In lieu of truss you could erect taller booms and some cross pipes. You can get pipe in 21' lengths so you could put booms at the corners of the stage and then span 21' sections between them at the top. If you are only hanging about 16 units you should be ok. You may want to get scedule 80 pipe though if you can. This solution would be cheaper to rent than truss and doesn't require any overhead rigging points.

[avkid]

Originally Posted by Pie4Weebl

rigging is not something you should do on your own if you are not confident.

Confidence has nothing to do with it.
At least $1 million in liability insurance(low end).
Knowledge of various formulas and hardware.
Possibly a Cert. such as ETCP.