New Stage Design

A lot of you come to this humble blog looking for inspiration for stage designs. I’m overwhelmed and a little shocked seeing how I haven’t updated it a while. Now that I’ve kept you waiting, I do have a BIG update for you guys. This design was fun to work with and involved a lot of volunteers, hard work, and a pretty handy boom lift. Beyond the design we also made a few modifications to our auditorium:

• We blacked out our windows. They were really small and the natural light would kill the environment.
• We moved our screen forward. It used to be mounted on a wall which made it recessed when we added curtains a couple of years ago. Having a recessed screen meant that people on the far sides of the auditorium had limited viewing. We finally were able to fix the problem!
• We extended our stage by covering the front steps. I always hated the steps and this gives us more room on stage.
• We removed the monitors from stands and onto the floor and placed our mic stands behind (finally). If you look at previous posts, you’ll see our monitors and Aviom controls were on a stand with the mic stands beside those. Not only did it look cluttered but it created a barrier between the singers and the audience. We also put a monitor in the floor of the build-out addition so there isn’t a monitor in the center of the stage.

Check out the pictures (click to enlarge) and then I’ll get into the concept of the design:

Now for the concept. If you’ve been around any modern stage in the last 5 years, you’ve noticed the LED bars used in concerts and larger churches. They are really amazing but also really expensive. My solution: Do it with pipes and cheaper LED lights. We added 14 new LED fixtures (20 total) mounted to truss to achieve this effect and I’m really pleased with the outcome. The following are two example chases I programmed. The possibilities are limitless:

I’m proud of my team for pulling this one off in such a short amount of time. I think we had somewhere around 18 volunteers for this design and each one worked his/her tail off.

Thanks again for stopping by. I would love to hear from you so make sure you let me know what you think in the comments.

Stephen

Stage Design: Battlefield

We’re tackling the subject of purity at In Focus Church this month and the series title is, “Battlefield: The Battle for Purity in a Sex-Crazed World.” I wanted to stay away from the traditional camo/army/military look that you automatically associate with the word, “battlefield.” The fight for purity is every day and everyone is in it. We incorporated metal pipes with some tattered flags (burning them was the most fun). We then took Wildfire Luminescent Paint (UV paint) and painted the series graphic on our small stage risers as well as a phrase on the front of our stage. Add in some blacklights and it really pops; I was very pleased with how the effect turned out. I think everything turned out better than anything we hoped for. I love my team and the hard work (and many hours) they put in last week. We had a big crew that worked their butts off. Enjoy the pics (click to enlarge).

Design Credit: JoAnna Wise and Stephen Lechner

Stage Design: Grey Matter

This stage design was fairly simple as far as concept but took a great team of hard working volunteers to pull it off. For the squares, we just used spray painted foam board and mounted it on conduit. Add some truss, new lights, and bake for 30 minutes. Let cool before serving. Enjoy!