What are these products and what do they do? (Stage brace)

[Thefoxygranpa]

Hello,

Encountered something while at a local highschool and they are wondering what they are and what they do.

Here are two pictures of them. They are made by J.R. Clancy, and appear rather old.




Thanks and let me know if you need any more details.

-evan

[skienblack]

In my high school we used something very similar, except instead of plywood we had a long 1X4 or something. We then used these to paint wood floors down on our deck, it would allow you to make a long straight line fast.

[Footer]

Those are stage braces. They were used way back when to brace up flats. One side of the brace has these odd teach looking thing that would hook into the flat and the other side either has a plate mounted that can be sand bagged (as yours are) or has a metal bracket with a hole that a stage screw can be driven into. They usually telliscoped to make storage easier and allow them to hold up a variety of flats.

These fit into a section of scenery hardware that no one uses anymore. Back in "the day" there was an entire system used that would help get a box set up with broadway flats quickly and easily. This included lash cleats and eyes that you would use to "lace" flats together. Along with that was the wonderful stage screw. I have a small collection of stage braces of different vintages along with stage screws. They make great office decorations.

Today stage braces have been replaced with flat jacks. Along with that, very few places use soft covered flats for box sets. If you are going to ground support a box set these days, its built out of hollywood flats.

Don't get rid of them, they are a piece of stagecraft history!

[waynehoskins]

Looks kinda like an old stage brace, before they went metal. I haven't seen them quite like that, but it looks like it would make sense.

... and Kyle beat me to it, barely.
The ones I've seen are the stage-screw kind. These of course predate the Improved Stage Screw, which oddly I've never seen anyone use. Then again, I'm from the Hollywood era of flattage, so we primarily used jacks.

[Footer]

Originally Posted by skienblack

In my high school we used something very similar, except instead of plywood we had a long 1X4 or something. We then used these to paint wood floors down on our deck, it would allow you to make a long straight line fast.

That is a lining stick or lining board

[Thefoxygranpa]

Thanks for the quick replies everyone! I thought they were a brace for flats just wanted to make sure! These are the telescoping kind and the bottom piece of ply swivels. Where would you hook the stange thing at the top of these to on a flat?

I believe they have two dozen of these, and have no use really for them because they build hollywood flats and have other methods to hold them up now.

But I'm wondering if I can take a few off their hands to decorate the office

[Van]

The top funny looking double hook thingy

hooks onto a Stage Brace Cleat

Yours would appearto have a sand bag base plate. The other style of bottom end hard ware is this:


Which is called a "Rocker Heel" or "Screw Foot".

I found all these images on Rosco's webpage. They are all still being manufactured. Honestly a proper application of stage braces is just as effective as using "Modern" jacks.
Stage Braces such as the ones depicted here were very effective when flying large scenic peices. Thier entire construction is designed for quick and easy installation and interchangability, thus the rocker heels curve to accomadate a wide variety of hook up angles.


**** All images appearing here courtesy of Rosco

[Thefoxygranpa]

Oh thanks for that Van! It looks like these may have more use than I thought. I'll look into getting some cleats for these as they all still have the double hook mechanism.

[Van]

Oh and for the un-initiated. The cleat would normally install on the framing of a broadway flat with the rounded end with the hole pointing towards the center. This makes it so the "dented" part of the hole is towards the back of the flat. The Hook is attached by rotaing the brace so the opening in the hook is faced towards the flat you "catch" the raised dent with the hook then spin the brace around, this will bring the rocker foot back around to where it's usable.
It sounds a lot more confusing than it is. And it's sometimes hard to figure out the first time but once you do it it's easy.

[icewolf08]

They are also really useful as focus sticks. The really adepts can both remove and insert color frames into fixtures with them. Also useful for breasting linesets or cable so that they don't snag when flying.