Re: Proscenium Border
Well, I have actually done this a bunch of times with many different types of lights, and I am going to do it again for at least one scene in our season closer, "The Producers." It isn't terribly hard to do, but it can be PITA to set up. Actually, when I think about it, I believe that I have used all the techniques that have been mentioned, from medium screw
base "
edison" sockets, to
candelabra base, to rope light. In fact I used all of the above on last year's production of "Chicago." Here is a photo:
(see more here)
In that show we had the lighted
portal, the two "Chicago" signs on the
proscenium and the "Chicago" sign up center. The
portal was done with medium screw
base G40, 40w white lamps, the "Chicago" signs were done with C7
candelabra base lamps, and around the center "Chicago" was 2
circuit rope light that we could
chase. The letters of the "Chicago signs were wired such that each letter could light individually. The
portal was wired such that each "Z" could light individually AND have a 3
circuit chase down the "Z" So the
portal alone took 24 circuits.
So, you want to know how we did this. Well, the carpentry crew built all of the "Z's" and the "Chicago" letters. I told them how big the lamp bases were and they drilled out holes for them on equidistant centers based on what the
scenic designer wanted. For the "Z's" we used a
Leviton medium screw
base lamp
base (I can't remember the part number right now or find it on their site) which were capable of being wired in parallel with eachother. We popped the bases through the holes and then hot glued them on the back side, so that it would be relatively easy to remove them after the show. Wired them up with 12AWG wires to 2P&G connectors.
The light up letters for the "Chicago" signs were slightly more of a PITA. I used a
roll of
wire with
candelabra base sockets that was designed for party/christmas use (the lamp bases all have little clips for attaching to a rope or tree or whatnot). Each
socket was hot glued in behind the hole and the lamps fitted through the holes into the bases. As the bases came pre-wired all we had to do was slap a
connector on one end. We also had to hide all the cable inside the letters, not fun.
The easiest part was the rope light. We had the ends that allowed the two
circuit use, so we just clipped off the
edison connectors, in favor of 2P&G and we were set to go.
In all it took 2 skilled people (including myself) about a week to
wire every piece. We came out with only
hot glue burns (keep a bucket of cold water handy!) and the show looked great. You don't need a high wattage lamp for the
portal, it will always show up. I don't think we ever ran the 40w lamps at full, they were plenty bright. It is a really great
effect though, so I hope that it works out for you.
I also just found a photo of another show I did with
portal border lights. this photo is from "Bat Boy: The Musical"
This one was done similar to what I did for "Chicago." The lamps are all medium
base globes, this time
clear. Each vertical and the horizontal stretch of lights has three circuits so we could do 3
circuit chases. I don't remember what wattage lamps we used for that.
Good luck, and feel free to post more questions!
