Some time or another, most people wind up having to get onstage. If not that, then they wind up having to set up a stage event. No matter what business you’re in, the world of theatre is unavoidable — stage events are a crucial part of any business.
But how do you set up a stage? How can you transfer your skills in other parts of life to putting together an event that will make your ideas shine?
This article will walk you through a few tips for stage setup:
Rehearse Effectively
Unlike filmed events, stage events happen in real-time. There’s no way to hide action that’s taking place, no way to look at something from a more flattering angle, no way to cut out or skip over anything, and no way to edit the product before it reaches the viewer.
Because of this, stage events need to be tightly rehearsed. Every single aspect of the event should get run multiple times at the speed with which they’ll happen during the show, and the show needs to be run completely on its own from top to bottom.
Problems will always arise in a show that no one can anticipate. These problems are only going to be seen if the show is run and rehearsed at speed. The discovery of these problems means they can be ironed out.
You don’t necessarily need to rehearse for a long period of time. In fact, to over-rehearse a show can kill it just as bad as under-rehearsing. The best way to solve this dilemma is to work smarter and not harder, using rehearsal time effectively.
The best way to figure out if something will work is to try it. We highly recommend cutting down discussion of how something to be done and pre-planning stage action to a minimum, and instead, work it out on stage. No matter how much something is discussed, you can’t tell if it will work until you see it happening.
Not being afraid to build something up on stage and then tear it down to start over will help you and your performers get more into the process and help them rehearse more effectively.
Hire a Great Crew
While the on-stage figures are going to be the ones who make your event, the backstage crew are the ones who help you even put the event on in the first place. Your performers can take you from good to great, but the crew is the group of people that gets you to “good”.
The crew will help you focus on smoothness, safety, and reliability, which are all important parts of a stage production. Any stage event where a person has become injured has likely not used a proper crew. Any stage event that’s worked in rehearsal but fell apart on stage also likely skimped on the crew.
A great crew will also force you to get prepared in other ways. If you’re trying to do things as quickly and cheaply as possible, you’ll wind up sloppy; you likely won’t hire a proper crew, and things will fall apart. A proper crew will require you to rehearse everything that happens on stage to make sure it goes off without a hitch.
The crew should be just as carefully cast as the performers and speakers in the stage production. Though their individual personality isn’t being presented to the audience, their individual personality will shine through the work they do on the piece. As small of a figure as a carpenter could transform the show in the way that they do their job.
If your show has flying pieces that need to be rigged up to come in and out, you’re going to need a professional rigger to do this. Check out this guide we found, which answers the question — what is a rigger?
Make Sure You’re Properly Lit
One of the biggest mistakes non-professionals make when staging a live event is failing to find proper lighting. Even in the least performative, most business-oriented setting, proper lighting is extremely important.
Many people who aren’t versed in theatre simply see light differently. The standard lights in front of a room are sufficient for everyday conversation — why wouldn’t they be sufficient for a stage performance?
But while non-theatre professionals don’t take conscious note of poor lightning, they’re still able to tell when something just doesn’t jump out to them. A figure on stage that’s lit with the same lighting as everything around it just doesn’t stand out the same way as a figure receiving proper lighting. People staring at something in the same light as them are more likely to get distracted, look away, and start thinking about other things.
Lighting can change any room drastically. You can change the whole mood of a room in your house by lighting it differently. In the same way, you can transform a simple stage into something representing focus and intention by lighting it correctly.
We recommend hiring a proper lighting designer — even if you don’t have a full lighting board. It’s a lighting designer’s job not just to work a board, but to get creative and understand the world of lighting.
Lighting designers can make use of standard overhead lights, construction lights, high-powered flashlights, and myriad other creative lighting fixtures to create wonderful theatrical experiences — even for stage events that aren’t works of theatre.
Learn How to Set Up a Stage
As you can see, the world of learning to set up a stage extends far beyond the preparation of the stage itself. To set up a stage for stage event success, you have to rehearse the event efficiently, hire a great crew, and set yourself up with proper lighting.
Once you do these things, you’re far more likely to run a successful event.
For more articles like this, check out our “quick guide” section.
