Lighting issues

I know there are a lot of different schools of thought when it comes to lighting design, and I guess if the end result works, then you've done the job. I am currently looking to upgrade the lighting at Melville, and looking for some input. Firstly, I have no training, and little knowledge about lighting design, bar what I've picked up on the job over the last few years. I want to set a permanent wash, but we are short on lanterns, so things tend to get moved around all the time. Question 1 - Are profiles the best lantern to use from the FOH bars? I've been led to believe this is the case, as you can pretty much eliminate any spill withh them. They do, tend to be rather hard around the edges, though I know this can be softened. I am currently using profiles for this purpose, but the don't have a wide enough beam to be used on the #1 FOH bar. Hence I use them on the #2 FOH bar, but it is too far from the stage, and hence too low (owing to a low ceiling), so they throw hard shadows onto the backdrop. To diminish this, I use floods on the backdrop to try and wash out the shadows. This is successful to a point. I think what I need are wider beam profiles that can be used closer to the stage. Comments?? Question 2 - Assuming I've solved the above problem, I have a handful of fresnels that I can use on the bar behind the curtains to light the upstage area, and backdrop to create a workable wash. Would Parcans as a cheap option do this job? Do they work in a wash? I've got 4 Minims that I use as backlighting, which seems to work OK, but they have a rather narrow beam. I think that wide angle Parcans might do a better job here. I think most of the problem is that the lighting bars are too low, though there's nothing that can be done about that, and this means that I need to have wide angle lamps, which I really don't have.