Dressing Room Renovations - mirrors/lighting?

[candaceshaw]

Hello Everyone,
I'm the new manager of a 150ish-year-old theatre in Lindsay Ontario, and we've got some money set aside from a larger grant to renovate our dressing rooms, which (to put it kindly) are pretty shabby. I'm open if anyone has any general suggestions, but particularly I'm wondering about lighting fixtures for the makeup mirrors - are there any products out there that cover us for safety concerns (a cage around the bulb, etc) as well as being generally useful?

I think the stuff that's in place was put in in the 60s, and I'm not very happy with it.

Thanks very much for your help!
Candace

[tjrobb]

(NEC 70 - 2008)
520 VI - Dressing rooms. Only a couple notes from there, one is the lamps MUST be guarded if less than 8' to the floor. Second, ALL receptacles adjacent to the mirrors must have a switch and an indicator lamp. The indicator lamp must be outside the room (in the hall) to indicate when the receptacles have power.

Done with the education, I have two manufacturers that build makeup mirror lighting. The first is Times Square Lighting, the other is Cole Lighting. As the fixtures do the same thing, there aren't going to be many differences between the two companies.

Hope this helps!

[jongaduet]

is that a local code? my newly renovated dressing rooms ain't got no cages for bulbs or indicator lights outside.

but I usually find that a performer has unscrewed about half of the bulbs so it's not so bright i guess...

our dressing rooms didn't actually get redone with anyplace to actually hang any clothes. no joke! we got new sinks, toilets.lights, and counters in all of em, but not one rack, not even a hook!

[sk8rsdad]

NEC applies in the United States. There are many similarities between it and the Ontario Electrical Code but they are not identical. Consult a local licensed electrician or electrical engineer as well as your local city building inspector to see what regulations apply.

[Footer]

I want to say the cage thing is an equity rule. I also think there was a thread on this exact issue a few years back.

EDIT: Here is the thread: Dressing Room Lighting Problem: Cages for Bulbs?.

[thatactorguy]

(NEC 70 - 2008)
ALL receptacles adjacent to the mirrors must have a switch and an indicator lamp. The indicator lamp must be outside the room (in the hall) to indicate when the receptacles have power.

Probably wouldn't be a bad idea to include outdoor receptacle covers as well; just a few more dollars.

but I usually find that a performer has unscrewed about half of the bulbs so it's not so bright i guess...

At the university where I took my makeup class, the lamps around the dressing room mirrors were alternating incandescent and compact fluorescent (Daylight, I believe). They probably did it, in part, to keep the room cooler, but it may have helped with application as far as accuracy went.

At my theatre, we just turn off the makeup lights when actors are finished with them. When they need to use them, they turn them back on...

I want to say the cage thing is an equity rule. I also think there was a thread on this exact issue a few years back.

I haven't seen the thread, but cages are a great idea, regardless of where the rule came from. Actors and Techs alike can get pretty rowdy

[SteveB]

Hello Everyone,
I'm the new manager of a 150ish-year-old theatre in Lindsay Ontario, and we've got some money set aside from a larger grant to renovate our dressing rooms, which (to put it kindly) are pretty shabby. I'm open if anyone has any general suggestions, but particularly I'm wondering about lighting fixtures for the makeup mirrors - are there any products out there that cover us for safety concerns (a cage around the bulb, etc) as well as being generally useful?

I think the stuff that's in place was put in in the 60s, and I'm not very happy with it.

Thanks very much for your help!
Candace

We did a major overhaul of our makeup tables last summer. Having done some research, we could not locate a desirable pre-made fixture that we could install. We found one design that had recessed lo-vo lamps in an enclosed 4-6 lamp box, with frosted plastic covers. They were expensive and would have needed modifications to gang together, as well as requiring external switches, and pass-thru wiring to an external switch. As our existing system that used globular lamps with min-candelabra bases was a somewhat similar and difficult to maintain design, we decided to go to a more basic design.

We ended up going to an ugly, but effective, cheaper and more durable system of standard 4" octagon electrical boxes with porcelain sockets that accept wire cages. Cages are a US NEC requirement. Our system is all surface mounted with 1/2" conduit to all boxes and the master switch, which has a 12/3 SJO cable and plug to a local outlet. They were relatively easy to install and are easy to maintain as all parts are off-the-shelf electrical parts.

Our carpenters built up all as portable tables, 22 total for 8 dressing rooms. Some were 3 mirror tables, some 4, with between 14 and 18 lighting fixtures. We did not install electrical outlets, as that would have complicated the design and our dressing rooms already have wall mounted outlets.

We chose cages made by McGill that are open ended, so as to allow ease of lamp changing. I went with 34watt incandescent A lamps, as it put out the right amount of light, versus heat, and is a lamp we use in abundance in our house lighting systems, thus stock hundreds. It's also a lamp nobody steals, as it's too ****ed dim to use in an apartment. We did a test run this past year with a tables worth of 7w CFL's, to find out if actors complained about the color, with 2/3 of the lamps getting stolen.

Not pretty, but we had no issues over a season, having to simply replace occasional bulbs.

Steve Bailey
Brooklyn College

[tjrobb]

Celestial Lighting has the BOL1000MB strip light that was installed when our reno was done early this year.

Normally I wouldn't bring up an old thread, but as I was able to find a pre-made solution that worked well for our community theatre I thought I would mention it.
As for energy / turning off the lights, we use Pass & Seymour timer switches (set to 1 hour) and CFL's to help the bills. So far no actor has had any complaints.
And yes, we have guards on our strips, they can be sent that way from the factory.

[michaelburgoyne]

If you have continuous makeup counters you might consider running the lighting only above the mirrors, not down the sides of each station. This allows you to provide a continuous mirror that may be used by 4 actors for a small drama or 12 skinny dancers for a large event. It also significanatly reduces the number of lamps, related heat and installation costs. If the counter is white or light in value you should get enough reflected light to fill the shadows while applying makeup. We've suggested this option for many venues and not heard any complants from performers while the operators like the flexibility. A star dressing room would still include the vertical lighting strips on each side of the mirror.

[actorgeek]

We went through a major dressing room renovation a couple years ago. We ended up with small, but nice, dressing rooms. However so many mirror lights were installed that you start sweating just turning them on. To this day, I think they've only been turned on for one run of a show.

Also without cages teenagers enjoy flicking the bulb and getting the light to break. That got costly really quick!

Good luck!