A Loaded Stage

Tim Cates from Highland Baptist Church in Waco, TX brings us this massive design in a fairly small space.

This is their version of Winter Wonderland. But their challenge was fitting the stage design elements on stage along with a choir of 90-100 voices and an orchestra. They were in a multi-purpose room–stage depth was only 25′ and approximately 55 feet wide at the back and 90 feet at the front.

They created lampposts with “heads” from Home Depot and PVC pipe painted black – about 40 bucks each to build. They put 15watt refrigerator bulbs in the lamps to keep them dim.

They added 6.5′ and 7.5′ pre-lit trees from Target ($50 and $85 each) along with four 4′ small trees ($25 each). There were 30 total trees on stage. They used some small staging pieces under the trees to create the varied heights.

They used white broadcloth as a base to cover the floor and hardware. Then they added craft store foam for the snow. The trees and the window panes on the lamps were sprayed/flocked with spray snow from a craft store.

Several layers of lighting create the texture and depth. The only LEDs on stage were under the choir risers shining on Coroplast that was velcroed to the front of the Versalite risers.

They used environmental projection on their back wall to add a really big look. Three Panasonic 6500 lumen projectors covered the expanse of the back wall powered by Pro Presenter and Matrox TripleHead2Go.