Curtains - Temporary tie-up?

[EWCguy]

Our curtains (grand and legs) are dead-hung and a crew is coming in to refinish the stage floor. Typically, our maintenance people use rope to gather curtains and then swag them away from the floor by tying the rope to cleats on the wall. Last year, this resulted in some tearing near the top webbing on the on-stage edge of the curtain (for my 30-year old legs). I talked to them about this but didn't have any suggestions of a better solution. Taking all the legs down will be far too much (scaffold) work.

I have seen narrow legs bundled into an overhand knot of themselves, so a knot of drapery temporarily hangs above the stage. I can only get this to work with 4' and 8' panels. Anything larger just won't wrangle into a knot. I've never taken a stagecraft class, so don't know the practicality of this.

What would be the best way to get these drapes out of the way for a couple weeks? Thanks.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

Best? Add a stage house and rigging.

If this needs to be done more than say once a year, investing in some canvas bags that the bottom 6' or so of each stacked piece of drapery will fill and a pulley and rope to just pull them up a ways is one good solution. Once in 5 years, twist and stuff the bottom into the "bag" created by the twist - keeping back side out. If more frequent than once a year or so, I just did a project where the tracks extend to side wall of stage, used a carrier with a brake as a normal offstage stop, and to clear they release brakes (a pull cord) and simply travel to wall, where there is a cleat and the canvas bag. It gets them compact as practical against wall and a little ways off stage floor - but since at the wall not a problem to clean or paint under. In this case, it was also to minimize exposed absorption to improve room acoustics for music events with a small shell to provide acoustic support and a pretty surround.

If a once in many year refinishing and if these are cotton - simply coordinate retreating for flame retardancy with floor refinishing - and get them out of the building.

 

[mikeydoesstuff]

Honestly, I would take down, fold, and store the greater than 8' wide panels

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

What is the material? I get so use to a medium to heavy IFR velour - like KM Charisma - I might not be accounting for something a lot different. And age would affect this.

 

[sk8rsdad]

Fold the outer edges to the middle. Repeat for a wider leg. Give mass a half twist and stuff the tail into the pocket that was formed.

 

[EWCguy]

Thanks. I'll ponder these for another year. This all got away from me before I could check back.

 

[mightymel]

Fold the outer edges to the middle. Repeat for a wider leg. Give mass a half twist and stuff the tail into the pocket that was formed.

I'm pretty sure I figured out how to do this based on your description, but is there away you could point me to a video/illustration that can demonstrate. I tried doing this to our mid curtain but it was a lot of material. Can it be done with wider larger curtains or is this technique only suited for legs/tabs? Thank you in advanced.

 

[Van]

I'm pretty sure I figured out how to do this based on your description, but is there away you could point me to a video/illustration that can demonstrate. I tried doing this to our mid curtain but it was a lot of material. Can it be done with wider larger curtains or is this technique only suited for legs/tabs? Thank you in advanced.

Doing this with a leg wider that 6-8 feet is damn near impossible and will lead to increased stress to the on stage and offstage Grommet, possibly resulting in the fabric around the grommets failing and tearing.

While all these suggestion are great for temporary protection of soft goods during a load in, if a floor is being refinished with sanding/buffing happening, on a dead-hung stage your only options are to take down and store the soft good properly, or Completely bag them in Visqueen and duct tape. We are often required to install brand new curtains in areas where active construction is still on-going. making a bag out of plastic and completely encapsulating the drapery, yes bringing it over the top of the pipe, is the only way to ensure that the draperies don't suck up every ounce of dirt in the air.

 

[EWCguy]

Great suggestion about bagging. I wonder if I can employ any of our non-used overhead pulleys to assist with the bag-lift-and-store method. Thanks, folks!

 

[RickR]

Great suggestion about bagging. I wonder if I can employ any of our non-used overhead pulleys to assist with the bag-lift-and-store method. Thanks, folks!

Probably not worth the effort. Bagging is pointless without a good seal, so you'll want hands up at the pipe to tape around the batten/track supports. And plastic sheeting doesn't weigh much!

 

[EWCguy]

I see that. So, the ideal deployment of the bagging process would be to lay a wide plastic strip over the batten and tape the two open edges from top to bottom. That still doesn't get the drape out of the way of workers on the floor.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

Why does it seem the work to bag is becoming greater - and less sure of protection - than dropping them? Hampers and a genie.

 

[EWCguy]

For me, it's a time issue. My primary job is something else, completely. I'm the de-facto tech director with a volunteer crew of up to 6 for lighting switch-overs (on ground). Getting a crew up in the air and a scissor lift is a whole other ordeal.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

I get that but the wrapping over the batten, etc., is work at height, and requires materials.

 

[EWCguy]

Oh yeah... and still time. I'm glad for all the suggestions! I'll have to pick & choose what is practical for our use. Moving the travelers and wide legs is my main concern, aside from construction dust, which I hadn't really considered.