Dance Floor

[MisterTim]

I have not been in many theatres, but every one I have been in has a matte black stage floor. Ours was until a couple years ago, when they replaced it with a beautiful glossy wood floor. Now every year for musical productions or dance shows we roll out this huge 100lb+ tarp and gaff it down.

I was always told that stages are matte black to prevent light reflections/remain invisible and to prevent upskirt views.

So then where would whoever did our stage get the idea to make it hardwood? And aside from painting (AFTER SANDING, I've had so many people try to paint over a glossy surface then wonder why it peels up not long after) the stage, is there any other solution easier than a huge tarp?

Citing the fact that I've not been in many theatres other than my own, can somebody fill me in on industry standards regarding this type of thing?

 

[len]

The few theatrical productions I worked, the tour usually uses their own marley floor, which has all their stage spikes, etc.

Most theaters I know of the floor is a softer wood so you can nail into it. Maybe when it was replaced they got a deal on something.

 

[derekleffew]

... So then where would whoever did our stage get the idea to make it hardwood? And aside from painting ... the stage, is there any other solution easier than a huge tarp? ...

1. Good intentioned, but uninformed, administrators want the stage to "look nice" so they often use the same contractor who does the basketball floor.

2. Your tarp solution, a modern day ground cloth, is likely the best one. See Marley Stage Floor Substitute for a less-expensive alternative to Marley-type flooring. Try a search for stage deck for more.

 

[MisterTim]

Awesome, thanks guys

 

[Footer]

I have worked in a few venues that have hardwood floors. What we did was for our season we layed 3/4" OSB going US/DS (not screwing it down) and then layed 1/4" maso going SL/SR (screwing it down into the OSB). This allowed us to have a good show deck that we could screw into, it gave us a deck we could repaint, and protected the hardwood for the orchestra season. It takes an 8 hour call to lay and about 2 hours to take up. The entire thing stores in about a 8x12 area.

One other solution would be to get 1/4" maso and cover the floor with it. Many venues do this regularly. It does require that you screw into the hardwood. However, it does work.

 

[SteveB]

I have worked in a few venues that have hardwood floors. What we did was for our season we layed 3/4" OSB going US/DS (not screwing it down) and then layed 1/4" maso going SL/SR (screwing it down into the OSB). This allowed us to have a good show deck that we could screw into, it gave us a deck we could repaint, and protected the hardwood for the orchestra season. It takes an 8 hour call to lay and about 2 hours to take up. The entire thing stores in about a 8x12 area.

One other solution would be to get 1/4" maso and cover the floor with it. Many venues do this regularly. It does require that you screw into the hardwood. However, it does work.

The only advantages I can think of for hardwood flooring is that they look very nice when cared for and they last a lot longer that most anything else with occasional maintenance. Acousticians like the sound quality as well.

That said if you want it to last long you can't anchor into it, which makes their use limited to spaces that don't need to anchor scenic pieces, which is mostly road houses (like mine).

Our 2nd proscenium space uses Masonite over hardwood and I happen to hate the look and feel. Masonite and other similar decks designed to accept anchoring, require a regular budget for replacement and many facility managers balk at forking over the money, thus the decks just looks like crap a lot. That's no big deal if every show paints the deck, but not all do, which is why hardwood is still popular.

We will lay down a Harlequin Cascade dance floor for dance events. If an event doesn't want a linoleum type surface, that's when a good quality, sprung wood T&G floor is the best surface.

 

[dcollins]

I actually just worked on a show where we took up our dance floor and used the (old, dirty, scuffed up) hardwood floor. It wasn't exactly glossy since it's so old, but we still noticed that when pointing lights at it, colors looked wrong - we used lavender toplights which initially looked too purple on the floor, probably because of how it reflects light - I would imagine the floor would be better at reflecting toplight to the audience than frontlight, because of angles and all that stuff. Even if the floor is only slightly glossy you're going to get what I think are called 'specular reflections' which make lighting a set uniformly a little hard.

 

[Mim]

I'd like a little more elaboration on how many times a year anyone has deployed a temporary deck like the 3/4" OBS topped with masonite like mentioned above? Did you use overlapping to help it 'lock' together? If anyone has built coffin locks into the temporary floor panels - how did you do it? how does it hold up to large rolling stage wagons? Do you have warping issues (my venue is concrete and has humidity issues) My venue is returning the stage deck to the old tongue and groove pine and wants to put a 'no painting or screwing into the deck' rule in place - although it would be good for the philharmonic, ballet, youtheatre and most of our venue's productions, it will prohibit the civic theatre from staging their 6 productions a year in the manner they desire (they paint and screw into the deck often). My venue is busy approximately 40-45 weekends of every year, 20-24 of those are are consumed by this civic theatre and the rest by the other groups mentioned. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[dcollins]

I'd like a little more elaboration on how many times a year anyone has deployed a temporary deck like the 3/4" OBS topped with masonite like mentioned above? Did you use overlapping to help it 'lock' together? If anyone has built coffin locks into the temporary floor panels - how did you do it? how does it hold up to large rolling stage wagons? Do you have warping issues (my venue is concrete and has humidity issues) My venue is returning the stage deck to the old tongue and groove pine and wants to put a 'no painting or screwing into the deck' rule in place - although it would be good for the philharmonic, ballet, youtheatre and most of our venue's productions, it will prohibit the civic theatre from staging their 6 productions a year in the manner they desire (they paint and screw into the deck often). My venue is busy approximately 40-45 weekends of every year, 20-24 of those are are consumed by this civic theatre and the rest by the other groups mentioned. Any help would be appreciated!

I don't know any of the technical names for what we have, but we have a set of interlocking 20" by 20" panels, foam on the bottom, which interlock. It's easy to tear up, difficult to store (you don't want them stacked for too long or the ones on the bottom get crushed, and it takes either 4 stagehands the better part of a day or 20 trained monkeys all day and well into the evening (too many people and not enough work...). We also have what I think is called a Marley stage floor, which is about 1/8" rubber, in 4' wide strips, as wide as the stage, which we rolled out for a silly dance group and are still trying to muster the effort to roll it back up. We would never remove and install either of our stage floors more than once in a year, as it's just too much effort for that to be reasonable.
(of course, other folks here probably have more dance shows and fewer podium/mic gigs than we do, so YMMV)

 

[len]

And be thankful that you aren't booking Insane Clown Posse in your space. They spray Welcome to Faygo all over the crowd, the house, the stage, you name it. Rolling up crappy carpet soaked in faygo every night is such fun. Fortunately, it was always left to the local crew.