A Good Theatrical Trick
For our recent production of Aida, we needed to build a pyramid on a high school stage. Problem was, we didn’t have a lot of overhead room, not to mention we wouldn’t be able to light the top of it because of the angle of the lights. So we solved the problem by using rope lights.
We took the rope lights and strung four of them together to come to a point over the middle platform. And it was neat, because we could turn off all the lights except for those and it looked really neat. If you plugged them into four different channels, you could flash each side separately or set up a “chase.”
I highly recommend rope lights to enhance your set for any number of applications-you can use led Christmas lights if you can’t find rope lights. We’ve strung them through plywood to spell out words, (and if you have a scrim, you can suddenly highlight the word from behind and it just pops out of the blackness!) outlined buildings and even draped them from the catwalk to add a sort of “club” look to the stage for stand-up comedy or improv shows. They are definitely something to add to a drama teacher’s arsenal!
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