Archive - MacAllen's Theater GUide

Converting Your Space to a Theater

Often the most difficult aspect of Community Theater is tracking down facilities to hold a show. Even if your group is fortunate enough to have permanent facilities available, often they are not theater ready.

In one production I was involved in, we were working in the sanctuary of a church. The greatest challenge in this environment was the blood red upholstery on the walls, floor, and seats. In addition, the back wall had a large stained glass window that needed to be covered. The room itself had large windows along the walls with poor shades. This scenario is all to common in community theater.

Converting your space into a usable theater will prove a formidable challenge, but can be accomplished. First begin by establishing a stage; in a large open room with a flat floor, you can actually begin by building flooring to raise the actors up. Using plywood and large beams, you can easily create 4 foot by 8 foot panels that slide together. After the performance these can be removed or rearranged for a new production.

Another challenge you will face is if the space you are using is a multi purpose room. One group I worked with used a lecture hall a college. The chalkboards and other academic-ness about the room had to be eliminated. In this case, the problem was solved by suspending a large black curtain from the ceiling. The curtain was then tied tightly to the wall to ensure its stability. If you are considering such an option, be sure to get a very thick curtain or the bright lights you point on stage will shine through the curtain revealing what you are hoping to cover up. Also be sure the ceiling you are hanging the curtain from can support the weight of the material; a thick curtain will be heavy. Hanging it from a suspended ceiling will likely bring the ceiling tiles down on your head.

Often times one of the greatest disadvantages of a shared space is that most auditoriums or lecture halls lack a back stage area. One way of creating this is with flats built up around the edge of the stage. Another, cheaper way of accomplishing this same thing is to get some PVC pipes and create a free standing frame. Covering the frame with black material will cost about half as much as actually building an entire set of flats. Also, PVC frames can be easily and quickly disassembled if the space is shared.

Lighting your temporary stage can prove equally challenging. Since most real theaters have bars suspending from the ceiling or attached to the walls to hold lighting instruments, its rarely a problem to put together suitable light on stage. On the other hand, an empty room has none of these amenities. Renting stands to hold your lights is one solution, but keep in mind that for safety reasons, audience members should be kept away from the light trees. This also creates a mess of wires. Running your wires through a suspended ceiling is often a violation of local fire codes, and can be a labor intensive activity. Of course it’s a catch 22 because laying wires on the floor are equally dangerous. Do you best to lay your cable as far away from the audience as possible.

Chairs can often be difficult to come by for a community theater. Stacking and folding chairs are convenient for storage, but have less character and are less comfortable. One solution is to pick through garage sales for old chairs that no one wants anymore. While these seats are more difficult to store, they often come cheap and add nostalgia to your theater.

Whenever you modifying a your stage area, be sure that you do not block any fire exits with flats or cables. Fire marshals frown on this sort of behavior. Never make a modification to a borrowed space; the loaner may not appreciate this.