Skinning the stage?

It may be interesting to find out what your theatre/venue do, about covering the stage floor, either normally or for different productions?

Especially if it is say a polished flooring & the group is not allowed to paint it or even use any staging screws. 

We at Phoenix Theatre [Hamilton Hill] have always solved the problem easily each time & painted the deck to suit the production. But for others groups with this problem, your posts & ideas on this topic might help them out! 

That's not a bad idea Na, although thinking about it. I can see it could be rather costly, unless they were able to get a load of 'klik' interlocking flooring, fell off a back of a truck. There again they may be aquired as an item or job lot, that could be picked up at a Salvage yard or Auction from time to time!

They would work, even with painting the surface & they would certainly be able to strike them on a Bump Out.

However I have seen old rolls of'Tarquette' & 'Marley' Dance mats used to cover the stage & even paint. They give a great surface for dance & movement. Though not very robust for stage works & mounting sets on. We adopted the same method of under gaffer taping sheets of MDF, to cover the whole deck & paint. Using the gaffer tape, which joins the sheets together from under neath, made it very easy to remove & even to relay again another day.

I have also covered sheeting like MDF or Masonite with unbleached calico, in a 'Gesso' method, which gives a textured surface, that is good for an average box set.

The old canvas Stage Cloths can be a drama David!

A lot of venues use the oil tempered Masonite sheets, over the T&G floor boards, which tek screwed down. With the idea of they can be easily replaced if any sheet is damaged. Invariably when they were first installed they choose to cut the Masonite so the sheets are square. which looses the advantage of just replacement of a standard off the shelf sheet. I agree Masonite can be a pain & it does tend to delaminate easily. I have worked a few shows, where touring companies have used painted Masonite floor plates. Invariably they are cracked & broken off corners they attempt to patch up.

We put down MDF for our inaugural show of Stepping Out & it remained there for a number of years, until we removed the sheets upon the refurbishment of the venue. The only real hicup with MDF  will suck up any moisture in the air over night. The joints between the adjoining sheets Will buckle up slightly, However once the lighting rig is struck up they shrink back to their normal position. But one thing the sheeting does, is give an easy flush surface area to paint.  We needed to paint it black quickly, so Hywell, Taureen & myself bought a couple of domestic kitchen 'Squeeze- Gee' mops, which worked great. In fact there was no spray you get from using rollers & we used less paint. The ability to squeeze out the access paint before tapping saved all that mess & drama, normally associated with rollers. Cleaning the pads was a breeze & the replacement pads are so cheap, if someone forgets to clean them.

Also with using the black I get the paint shop to add 'cobalt blue' tint to the paint mix. It normally works out one shot of tint per 2 Litres , about 4 to 5 per gallon. { the blue show mode work light back stage, works well with the blue tint as well!} One of the problems with Black is with wear, scuffing, washing & dragging sets over the floor. The wear areas tend to turn to a brownish pigment. The Cobalt Blue colours out the brown to be less noticeable. This does also help & extend the period before having to repaint, also by adding PVA wood glue to the paint, which is white but it drys clear. This gives a very hard wearing deck surface. Again with using the replaceable squeeze mops, you can just replace the mop pad. Under tapping the sheets is easy but it does take two to roll out the gaffer tape & slide the tape [sticky side up] under one sheet, then lay the next sheet down on the the protruding half of the tapes sticky side.  Then walk along the sheets joints will ensure the tape adhering under neath.

Perhaps we should start a Circus for all the unknown "Plinges and Plingettes" that inhabit the site...

 We could call it "PRATT'S"!!!

"Joke 'em if they can't take a f*ck!" - Robin Williams

 I remember well the laying of the floor for "Stepping Out" and I STILL thing we should have used something a little thicker than 5mm MDF... perhaps 10 or even 12mm would have been better....(ok... a lot dearer... but Hey! it would not have buckled quite so badly!) and it would have been a weeny bit safer for our delicate wittle flowers to tap on!!...

Agreed, the sheeting worked well, but if we had used the same "flooring" that we had used for the thrust it could still be in use today,.... or at least re-cycled into another form..

Joke 'em if they can't take a f*ck!" - Robin Williams

Taureen I still have fond memories of it. Even though I'm  getting old, you were & still are a major stalwart! 

Also one of the originals in setting up Phoenix & the stage for stepping Out. Making an old community hall, into a workable theatre - all on an elastic shoe string.

I agree they could have been thicker boards, but it's same old story of the amount of gold bricks available.

Funnily enough the builders on site, of the refurbished venue. Have put aside a heap of MDF sheets for us, they used to cover the floor boards, while they were building. They will more than we will ever want, so I have offered some to Harbour Theatre, if they pick them up, when they are available.