Since we are currently in the process of building two events
in venues with resident stages, it seemed like a good time to talk a
little bit about the pros and cons of this sort of thing.
First, the pros: It’s
a stage. In your room! It’s cool, it looks a little more “real” ...
a little more “Broadway.” You don’t have
to use scruffy hotel risers. And you get to say words like “proscenium,” “fly
rail” and “main drape.” All good things,
to be sure.
But even though a built-in stage has its advantages, it
generally won’t solve all your problems. For example, there’s a stage at a convention center we frequent that --
to the casual observer – appears to be a real stage, but when you get right
down to it, it’s unusable without building out an extensive thrust
addition. Why? Well, there’s hardly any depth to speak of,
and no wing space. Which means that if
you have any scenic items or any technical gear on the stage, you’re out of
space for your presenters or performers. In addition, there’s not really any access to the house without going
backstage, which makes it difficult for award winners or presenters to come
from the house. Not world-ending
problems, just things to consider.
In another heavily-union venue we’re working in, the
resident stage comes with a high price tag.
It looks like a complete package, ready to go, but further research has
uncovered a plethora of extra costs. Doing
anything on the stage requires a special rigging call, for example. And what looks like a perfectly suitable
lighting rig is really at the wrong angle for the stage action we’ve got going
on, and requires union labor to re-hang and re-focus. And when we asked to move an existing
scrim from one fly rail to the other, the initial answer was “no,” which would
have required us to acquire and hang a new scrim, when a perfectly usable one
was already in place ... just a few yards out of position. (We were later able to change that to a
grudging “yes,” thereby saving a few dollars.)
Another “watch-out” is stage size. If you’re used to
creating a nice little 18x24 deck with hotel risers and all of a sudden you’ve
got a 50-foot proscenium to fill, you’re going to encounter some extra scenic
and lighting costs.
So by all means, pursue spaces with built-in stages. But remember to consider the pitfalls, and
examine things like backstage space, access to house, fly space (and
accompanying costs), existing lighting truss and instruments and union regulations.
And then, break a leg!
-- Amy Oriani
Martin Bastian
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