Production Musings

Response Stage Design “How-To”

// October 7th, 2011 // Stage Design

If you have checked my blog at all over the past few months you’ve noticed that there hasn’t been much action here. My apologies to you. It’s been a busy year full of projects that I need to write about. We’ve been able to do some really neat stuff this year. Getting caught up will be fun.

I’ve been asked a few times for a step by step instructional on how to make the “Response Stage Design” I posted a while back. So without further delay, my first blog entry in 8 months starts now:

Step One: Determine your height and width
How much space do you have to work with? Be sure to consider different viewing angle of your room. If at all possible, make it easy on yourself and keep the height divisible by 2 and the width divisible by 4. It doesn’t have to be exact, as you’ll see later, but it does need to be within a few inches. It will make your life easier.

Step Two: Create a materials list
Now that you know the dimensions of the total design, do some math on constructing a 2×4 frame. The dimensions of the frame equals the dimensions of your design. 2x4s are generally sold in 2′ lengths up to about 22′ or 24′ if I’m not mistaken. Don’t quote me on this though, I’m no lumber expert. In our case, we went with 16′ verticals so that 8 rows high will work very easily. When calculating materials: the vertical studs need to be placed on 4′ centers. You’ll have to do some math based on your specific design as to how many of these you need.

Wooden dowels or small 1x2s are used to protrude one end of each coroplast panel. We used 1x2s because they are easier to work with and we cut them to a 12″ length.

Our material list was as follows:
• 88 2′x4′ panels of coroplast, round it off to 90 or 95 to account for mistakes. We order 4′x8′ coroplast and then cut them to 4 pieces of 2′x4′.
• 16 16′ 12 for vertical 2x4s and 4 for the top and bottom of the frame. BTW, 2 of the verticals count as the left and right side of the frame.
• 2 12′ 2x4s for the middle portion of the top and bottom of our frame. This will vary based on your design.
• 176 12′ 1x2s – bought in long length and cut to size.

Step Three: Construct the Frame
I’m skipping some obvious steps of ordering or picking up the materials, gather construction tools and planning out the design with your volunteers or staff.
The verticals are, again, spaced on 4′ centers and go inside the top and bottom 2x4s making up the frame. So that your total frame height will actually be 4″ taller than the height of your verticals. For us, our total frame dimensions were 16’4″x44′. For us the extra 4″ is fine because we planned to paint the bottom of the frame black and start the panels 2″ from the floor or the bottom of the first panel meets the top of the bottom portion of the frame. I hope that makes sense so far. The leftover 2″ on the top of our design are also painted black and aren’t noticed because of the size of the design. If you really need it to be exact, consider cutting 4″ off of each vertical.
Measure everything out and assemble the frame on the ground. We assembled our entire frame on the stage and then raised it into position with several people. 2x4s are hardly ever square or straight. Don’t let this bother you as long as you’ve made sure to install them on 4′ centers. You can fix some of the crooked verticals as you install the panels as needed.

Step Four: Safety Safety Safety
I can not stress this enough. Make sure that you are operating safely through the whole process but now is when you must be aware of what’s happening around you. Do not lean, prop, or tilt the frame onto anything else. It must be anchored to your stage well before you may continue. Here’s what we did:
• Screw bottom of frame directly into stage floor
• Used additional 2x4s to build braces from the sides and back of the frame to anchor into the back walls
• 45° legs on the back side
• Safety cables from the top of the frame to anchor points in your building structure.
You must make sure that there is no possibility of the frame ever falling over.

Step Five: Add Panels
Starting from the bottom, staple one side of each panel to the vertical studs. Alternate sides as you add panels or use the same side whichever you prefer. Be creative. Some of the spacing may not work precisely and that’s ok. It’s a big stage design. It won’t be noticeable. At this point you may need to tweak a few vertical studs if they are crooked. Add the 1x2s or dowels to the non-stapled side of the panels. Because they are cut to 1′ lengths, they should protrude the panels to approx. 8″ from the frame. They are installed at the top and bottom corner of each panel and one end of the 1×2 should align with the back side of the frame. Make sense?

Step Six: Light and Enjoy a Cherry Coke Zero