Stage City

Your “just” offstage areas are dark, and they should be, but the stairs are dangerous? What should you do? Glow tape? How about a little electronic magic? Use this simple design, and your actors will be able to find the escape’s edge, an offstage prop or even the stairs.

Non-flashing LED, has brightness control and is mounted on a 9v battery.

It’s an electronic “spike”, and I use different types for various purposes. I have the single 9-volt battery version that emits a steady glow. It’s useful to mark a prop onstage, or the upstage edge of a couch. The battery will last all night, but the stage manager needs to remember to turn it off at the end of the performance. (As well as turn in on at the start.) The SM will have to remember that anyway, for all the electronic spikes. The unit shown has an intensity control.

I also have several that flash on and off, creating a easy to find beacon. These are nice when you need to spike several items near each other, as the actor can zero in on the flash, especially when I use different flash rates. Not all units are adjustable, but most non-adjustable ones flash at different rates anyway.

I also have a couple of versions with two lights, red and green, that flash alternately. They can be hidden in various locations on and off stage to aid actors in finding an exit, a prop, a door handle, a lever, or whatever needs to be found in the dark. Not all do, but usually this units have both intensity and flash rate adjustments.

Non-adjustable flasher. Uses 9v battery.

Adjustable Flasher with 9v battery.

All of these use one or more low power LEDs in their various configurations. They are fairly inexpensive, and rarely “burn out”. The only problem I usually have is either a broken connection, or a failed battery. Broken connections only happen if the unit gets moved around and jostled. A quick job with a soldering iron will fix that quickly. Of course, having a few spare 9-v batteries hanging around doesn’t even need to be mentioned, especially to a good stage manager.

In the interest of safety, I have installed dedicated versions into the floor! I have a couple of platforms with the LEDs around the edge. Actors love it! When coming offstage in the dark, the LED clearly delineates the platform edges, and the actor knows exactly where to step.

LEDs in the platform.

My latest “creation” isn’t battery operated, though it could be. It is a 6-segment chaser. Each segment is two LEDs, and I’ve mounted them, two segments to a stair, and a 3-step portable staircase. That’s four LEDs per step, two on each end, where each end is one segment. It’s rigged so that the LEDs flash in sequence, going up the right side of the stairs, and down the left. Again, actors can clearly “get the picture” of where they are and how to get where they want to be hopefully without tripping.

Wiring under the stairs.

I have a newer version which supports various numbers of segments and flash rates. I am developing this one to be produced on a printed circuit board for easy replication. The number of segments is changed by way of an on-board jumper. The flash rate is changed by accessing a variable control with a small screwdriver.

I’ll be making these available for purchase soon. Let me know if you want one!