Stage Team Updates
Stage Watch
In the past we have had people walk onto our stages and investigate what we do up close and more concerning we have children who are allowed to play around the sets and lights. We feel that this is a dangerous situation. Our sets are often heavy and the lights are hot with potentially sharp edges. As a result of the concerns that we have, we are asking our stage crew to take on the responsibility of keeping our stages safe. We have been doing this for the past few weeks but moving forward it will be a permanent task and we thought a few guidelines might be helpful.
We are asking that a stage crew member be positioned in both auditoriums before the first service, between the services and after the last service. Basically if we have attendees in the auditoriums someone needs to be watching our stages.
It will be up to the Back Stage Manager to assign times to the crew when they will be watching a specific stage. The person watching either stage needs to be there as soon as the service/rehearsal ends and remain there until the next service begins or they are relieved by another crew member.
Some Guidelines when posted on Stage Watch:
- Be on or near the stage in plain sight
- After 3rd service in East:
- At this time we are not requiring someone watch over the west
- The East needs to be watched until the majority of the crowd has dispersed
- If an adult approaches a stage:
- Ask them if they need help
- Feel free to show them around and answer any questions they may have while continuing to watch over the stage
- If a child approaches the stage:
- Kindly inform them that they are not aloud on the stage
Table MIA?
No, Andy’s table isn’t missing. It is stored away if he or another communicator should want it. However, Andy has decided that he has no need for an entire table anymore. Instead, he had a shelf built on the back of the plasma TV that has become a staple for our message setting. The shelf holds Andy’s Bible/notes so that they are there if he needs them.
Actors Needed!
Okay we really don’t need actors, rather you the backstage crew have been designated the acting crew.
Let me explain. For our online service we are now having Evan, our host, do the segments live on the East stage. The desire is to have some motion in the background to make the stage look active to our online community. The “acting” creates visual movement in the background of Evan’s shot. We do this so that the viewer has more to look at than just a talking head. This slight background motion is more likely to draw the viewer into the video broadcast subconsciously.
So at 2 minutes and 15 seconds before the service starts we, the backstage team, will load in with the band and proceed to check pressure gauges, make sure the band is ready to go and have everything they need and generally walk around the stage and look like we are doing something of great importance. At 20 seconds from the the start we will vacate the stage and the service will commence.
But wait… we aren’t done! Evan will return at the end of the service and we will reset the left side of the stage. This is once again to create motion in the background, so I need you, our volunteers, to create big and over-the-top arcing motions when resetting. Sound like fun? This is your time to shine. The 15 seconds of fame all you have dreamed of 
Thanks for being a part of what we are doing here and doing it all with excellence.
Stage Screen Doors
As many of you know we have been removing our band risers from the stage for our message setting for several years now. This has caused us to have to engineer some fairly ingenious systems for moving set pieces around on our stage in order to remove the risers. We came up with a plan to create an entrance door to move the risers through on a more permanent basis so we don’t have to reinvent the process of removal for every set. Because of circumstances we were able to demo the walls under the stage at the beginning of the summer.
Although establishing the entrance doors was the end goal, we have been using this area for backlighting some set pieces all summer. We used this time to design the doors and get the initial construction of the doors done. We installed the doors as we changed out our fall 2010 set.
These two doors swing using a pipe hinge. Both doors are just over 13′ wide and swing to a 70degree angle creating a lot of space for the risers to roll through. This space has helped to speed up our transitions and make removing the guitar pedals via the guitar sleds a real easy addition to our transitions. We are able to clear our stage of all band gear in less than one minute. These doors have allowed us to further accomplish our desire to have a clear stage for our communicators and the video products that we create.
Design:
For those who are interested, the door was designed to be modular. This is so we can easily remove the sections allowing us the flexibility to use this space to project on set pieces or light set pieces from behind. The whole structure rolls on six wheels. It pivots from two ball bearing pipe hinges mounted on the floor and on the support beam below the screen. The wheels are staggered at a slight angle allowing the door to rotate easily on its arced path.
The wheels are mounted to a footer beam that was constructed by wood, gluing three 2×4x14’s, that had been cut down to 13′4″, together. This creates the base for the entire door. The hinge section of the door consists of a pipe cut to size running vertically between the two ball bearing hinges. The pipe is bolted to four 10″ horizontal 2×4’s via carrier bolts. The hinge section continues across so that the entire section is 41″ wide. This was intentionally done so that all four sections of the door are 41″ wide. This keeps the seams in the door evenly spaced. The other three sections of the door are 2×4 structures constructed individually with framing nails. The four sections are bolted together so that they are easily taken apart. The front of each section is surfaced with a 3/4″ piece of MDF cut to size and screwed to the 2×4 structure. 3/4″ MDF was used because the MDF is smooth enough to match the drywall once painted and thick enough to staple or drill set materials on to it. The whole structure is sured up using a strand of aircraft cable with a turnbuckle running diagonally across the back of the structure. This allows us to pull the top right corner tight into alignment with the bottom left corner. Each section of the wall was then strapped to this cable using corrugated metal straps. The whole structure if unbolted can be removed in five relatively light sections.
Assistant Stage Manager
New Volunteer Position:
Assistant Stage Manager
Reason for creating position:
- To give leadership to the stage crew posted on the left side of the stage.
- To further develop volunteers in leadership roles.
Responsibilities:
- In charge of managing and executing the stage left part of the transition.
- To assist the Backstage manager in all other backstage related activities.
- To help develop new backstage volunteers.
- Responsible for Baptism Microphone Check.