Design LED/Conventional Rep Plot

[mrb604]

I'm a one man high school theatre dept. We currently perform in a 100 seat black box style theater where the stage area is usually about 36 ft wide and 24 ft deep with a lighting grid 19 ft above. For the last five years the lighting instruments we have had available were 8 parnels, 2 Pars, and 14 source 4's mostly with 36 deg barrels. I've always been trying to get more instruments and now my wish has come true. School district is purchasing 8 color source spots and 12 color source pars.
Now that I will have a hybrid rig I am looking for suggestions for how you would set up a rep plot for this space. How would you use the LED's? How about the conventionals? How many areas would you have?
Jack of all trades, master of none looking for advice.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

How much does audience wrap around stage? I sensed the stage is against one walk but maybe it's arena or thrust.

 

[mrb604]

How much does audience wrap around stage? I sensed the stage is against one walk but maybe it's arena or thrust.

While we have staged shows as a thrust or in the round, it shrinks our stage space significantly. The majority of our shows are staged proscenium style with the audience at one end of the room and the 36x24 ft acting space at the other. So the Rep plot is for that arrangement, we will move lights for alternate staging and then restore back to this "proscenium" arrangement .

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

I would look at the CS pars as high back light - 3 rows of 4. And the CS spots as high side - pipe ends - 2 pair each side - a kind of near and far in two rows. I'd have to draw but probably 50 degree near and 36 degree far. I used mostly the S4s for front light probably in an implosion explosion arrangement, a kind of symmetrical McCandless with warm from center out and cool from ends of foh toward center. Whether or not I used the pars for front color wash, upstage, or left them for specials I'm not sure. I like fresnels, but could never find pars useful except for color washes, like border lights (or x-rays if you really go back). I might save them for back drops with lots of frost. If I had a plan, I might see there is a need for dsl and dsr fills - x-whites - for otherwise hard to light corners or entrance areas where you otherwise don't want light.

Every light should be patched so it can be a special. In these minimal (under 60-100 focusing units) plots, I don't try for too tight of area control - left right center and up-center is usually enough - with lots of overlap. Small spaces seem to punch up imperfect overlap and blending.

 

[mrb604]

Bill, thank you. Your reply was filled with helpful ideas. I found the implosion/explosion McCandless an interesting idea. Speaking of which, if you are trying to use Mccandleuss in a theatre where the stage goes all the way to the wall, how do you light it? For the areas on each side you can only light from an angle on one side, the best you can do is straight on for the other side.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

Like the implosion explosion, the axis just shifts. Your just trying to reveal form by different colored "shadow".

Hard with words but let's assume width of foh pipe is same width as stage, and now real box boom or other options. Three areas, three units each end of pipe. So from pipe ends: straight in, to center, to opposite side. Ideally you would change lens tubes.

I'd put three units center - center straight in and the adjacent units to left and right, and two units each pipe end - straight in and to center. Throw distances are less different so all your 36s work better.

Much easier to diagram.

 

[JimOC_1]

An additional thought is to have some CS front color wash. This is a HS, and having saturated front colors can spice up many student events, while providing busking opportunities for your crew.

My son went back to his HS last year to light a fundraiser, a teacher’s lip sync battle. (Why they needed him is another story.) In addition to the top/back saturated colors, we set him up with side and front colors. With his HS theater experience, he didn’t know what to do with all that color. He did great at keeping the crowd on their feet, but there was more available to him. This year when they asked him back, he often washed the stage with throbbing color from three directions, and used the standard front lights to highlight the lead performers. If you give your crew toys, they will learn to play with them. Having your crew support non-theater events can make them stars throughout the school and gain you wide support for your programs.

Soap box now available…… (smile)