Zac's method would be about the lest expensive method for doing this. Say a black drape background, a net, than a
scrim to mask it all. I would even go with the
scrim were it the lamps punched
thru the drape. Distance is also your friend. I believe the star
drop thing has been discussed before heare. Also it's a frequent thing on stagecraft do a serach on past topics. But in the end, I don't know for your situation if I would
build one. After it's built you have to store it. Such a
drop while great is of less importance than other scenic things such as and especially a black drape wide enough to
cover the
stage. There was also a
LED idea presented on stagecraft that might be of use. My advice is that a lamp lasts longest when on a
dimmer even by 5% dimming. Christmas lights don't last that long already so anything you can do to help that lifespan would be advantagious. Especially if you use Christmass light netting which would be the easiest method. But once one
circuit goes out from any one bad
bulb, you loose a section if not all the
effect of the net in that area. Otherwise if using strings of them, keep them as dispersed in
circuit as possible. One chain should not
cover a single section. This way should one chain go out you will not loose the
effect in that area.
http://stagecraft.theprices.net/sta...te&dateGMT=02/1/2002&-max=50&-skip=613&-find=
As for rigging the thing, you can, but once it's up, I would be hesitant to take it back down again. My school had a great thater that was recently ripped down and replaced by something better yet. Too bad all schools are not so equipped.
First do you have
boom bases you can spare for on
stage usage? Six of them or at least two? You can do without but had at best tie the rigging off to the back wall. Picture this. Six booms with on the cheap side plumbing type floor flanges screwed to a plywood
base with rubber or vinyl stair runner backing. Minimum size either 30" square or 30" x how ever deep you can go with the
effect plus 30". Than if possible screw the plywood with floor flanges to the
stage for
safety, or at least to the back wall. Up from there three sets of booms/pipes about 2" shorter than your ceiling height assuming it's not much. Another set of plumbing flanges, this time with female
velcro applied to them given you can't
lag bolt to the ceiling. Find the ceiling joists if possible and use the flanges and pipe as if a construction
jack by unscrewing the pipe enough to create tension between
deck and ceiling. Otherwise if you don't have a joist above, unscrew the booms enough so they are fairly well self supporting. Next use cheeseboroughs or Rota Loc's and more pipe to span the
stage horizontally in three linesets for the
scrim, net and drape. Next do three to five sets of upstage to
downstage sway braces in pipe spanning between the linesets. At least three pipes worth at the hang positions, or better yet two more added at about the floor
level to ensure the booms have stability as legs beyond what bolting to plywood will do. You now have a
grid that's not perminantly installed or going to mess up the
stage as long as you don't have to take it down every night.
A potential substitute for all of this could be
unistrut or Telestrut given materials and some adaption.