Proscenium # Markers

Jezza

Active Member
Hey guys, sort of an unrelated topic, but something that came up at my rehearsal this afternoon. What is the technical name for/where can I acquire those plastic numbered cards that I so often see stage hands taping down to the proscenium edge so that actors can find there mark? You know, usually going from 12 to 0 and back to 12 with 0 being center stage? I know this isn't the correct forum for this, but I didn't know where else to post.

Example (pretend these cards are placed all the way DS on the proscenium edge)

12 11 10 ... 0 ... 10 11 12
 
We just make numbers out of spike tape. Might take a bit longer, but they'll stay down and cost a whole lot less.
 
If you're looking for cleaner looking numbers, you can usual get them from a printing company. We recently got ours from a company in Florida called Artype Inc.
 
Best way to get your dance numbers down on the stage and make them visible is white paint and a stencil.
 
A ballet company I used to work with kept a roll of Jute webbing, like you use on the top of a drop, it was pre-numbered. It just had white gaff, with a number written on it every foot, in the manner in which you indicated. The ME used it for focusing but I guess you could use it for anything.
 
It's called a number line. Most often used in dance and musical/dance productions. The "equity" version only includes even numbers (every two feet) plus little dash marks on the odd feet. Ours goes from 0 to 18 feet on each side. We put ours down with white spray paint and number stencils from Walmart.
 
Ah, gotcha, thanks, it just seems somewhere buried in my brain on some load out I saw a stagehand ripping up some really nice, plastic black cards w/ white lettering. Just wondering whether they were pre-fab or not. Guess I'm going to go find some stencils and some white spray paint.
We are actually doing Les Mis which is not a dance show, but I've got a number of movers coming in and I figured that the number line would aid in them not missing the focus points for the movers EVERY night in a row :). You know how most high school actors are. Nothing worse than Javert's Suicide w/ Javert not even in in the beam of light. Thanks
 
If you head to any general hardware store you should be able to find stick-on numbering, 0-9. Usually comes in several sizes to mark mail boxes with. Just stick onto the stage, done.
 

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