An interesting experiment ~ part 2

Perceptive readers may recall a topic I posted here a couple of months ago about our theatre company not being able to replace the four paint-encrusted, cracking and exceedingly heavy flies. The cost of replacing these twenty-year-old antiques was more than our meagre budget could support. Instead, we decided to try out solid panels. We planned to make five panels, each 1.5 x 3.6 metres, each centrally pivotted, and together forming a backdrop 7.5m wide and 3.6m high. We would paint a scene on one side, and another on the reverse, then turn the panels upon their pivots to reveal the other scene during a performance. Days have passed, and it's now time for an update. We're staging a two-act pantomime written by local playwright Carl Lawton, and it requires an Arabian market backdrop and a palace backdrop. What better way to test our panel idea? One of our trusty helpers skilled in trade stuff (hammers and nails, that kind of thing) built the panels, which we transported to our theatre shed (where we keep props, costumes, and once used to paint flies). We figured we would temporarily set up the panels there so that they could be painted. Unfortunately, the roof height is barely enough to accommodate the height of the panels. Fortunately, we did manage to figure out how to mount them so that they were nearly in line. We had two teams of painters, one to paint each scene. The way we had set it up meant that the two teams could work on the panels, each working on one side of them. This was a bad mistake!! If you have topological skills, you will be able to work out our fatal flaw. While the painters were painting, the rest of us were figuring out how we were going to mount them. We decided that each would sit centrally upon a spiked base fixed to the floor. This takes care of the bottom of the panels. Each panel would then be fitted with a central spike at the top, which would sit in a pipe clamp mounted on a horizontal steel beam, about 4m above the stage. This, of course, meant dismantling about twenty years of accumulated rubbish in the 'fly tower' (which for us is really a fly bunker . . . there's not that much room up there). And we had to securely mount a steel beam to hold the clamps. Fortunately, we had another handy-man type person with a laser leveller which made lining up stuff horizontally and vertically a breeze. In due course, the painting was finished, and we inspected the colourfully completed panels. That's when our blood ran cold. We realised that though the scenes were painted to specification on each side, it wasn't going to work. The reason is that it is not the whole set of five that revolves as a single unit, it is that each panel rotates about its spike. The notionally efficient way of painting both sides at once was, in fact, a bad idea. What we should have done was paint one side first, rotate the panels 180 degrees in position, then paint the other scene! As it was, one side looked as it should, but when the panels were rotated, the panel images were all out of sequence, and what we saw resembled some surreal cubist painting. Fortunately, one of the painting teams was willing to undertake major surgery on one of the scenes to render it comprehensible. But we needed to get the panels in the right position for them to do this. So . . . it was time to mount the panels on the stage. We fixed the floor spikesonto the stage, then the top spikes on the panels. We started with the central panel, then worked outwards. Amazingly, this went smoothly, the panels butted up against each other tightly, and swivelled freely. Their installation was a remarkable success! With the panels in place, the painting team moved all their gear to the hall, and did their scenery surgery from the stage. At 6pm today, they finished. Tomorrow the play ("Aladdin and the Treasure of Ahkbar") opens with its preview night. A close call, but worth it. In action, the panels work beautifully! So . . . still suffused with the glow of success and the avoidance of near disaster, we're starting to thing about imporvements. It looks like we will tackle a three-panel triangle next.