Securing curtains to scenery

[GHSStageManager]

Hi All,

My HS is putting on a production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast and we've just recently built the castle. The masking setup in our auditorium is:

Main curtain (traveler)
Two legs
Back curtain (traveler)

The two legs are angled such that the stage looks roughly like a rhombus when viewed from above. The escape stairs of SL/SR cutoff the usual closing track of the two legs, so we are looking for a way to secure the legs to the scenery so that any kind of gaps are prevented.

However, while the connection does have to be secure, it also needs to be easily removable as we need to page the leg many times to accomplish scene changes.

Some ideas I had thought of are using tie lie to secure safety pins in the leg to the stair banister and doing something with magnets, but I don't think those ideas would work well in practice.

Any and all suggestions are appreciated...
Thanks!

 

[soundman]

Spring clamps or binder clips will allow you to attached the legs to anything you can clip to but it will come off much quicker than safety pins. If it needs to be gapless I would think about adding a vertical piece of 1"X to the escape stairs so that you can clip to it at regular intervals.

 

[gafftaper]

Simple spring clamps are definitely the way to go... and about the only thing you should ever use on a curtain. Tape won't hold. Pins will slowly damage your curtains. But a couple of $2 spring clamps will do the trick every time safely and quickly. They come in a variety of sizes. I recommend you buy the ones that the jaw opens to 4" or 6". This is the one they have at Home Depot for $2.09 but you can get them at any hardware store. Or you can splurge and get the larger 6" model here for $3.19.

Don't get ones with a smaller jaw opening. It's a lot easier and faster in the dark to grab the curtain, squeeze the clamp wide and just let it grip. You don't want to have to be concerned in a quick set change about getting the clamp just right or not getting too much curtain in the grip. Also be sure to build your set with a nice lip that you can conveniently clamp to.