Top Ten Tech Theatre Gadgets - 2005

I've been reimmersed into technical theatre again for five solid years now, having managed the technical aspects of over twenty five productions in that timeframe. I have by necessity had to find different ways to solve technical problems, and in doing so I have come across a palette of tools that make things easier. Some are big and expensive, but he majority are items that cost less than $10 each (if that). Each has a particular set of benefits and drawbacks, but all are active members of my arsenal.

1. Simpson Strong-Tie Mending Plates - Simpson is a company that makes zinc-plated steel hardware for connecting wood to wood. You will almost never see their products, because they are used as essential parts of the basic structure of jobs: most of the time their products are under houses, or in attics, or behind walls, or holding floor beams in place. Their MP24 product is now a key component of my flat construction, replacing the old 45 degree piece of 1/4" plywood to hold flats together. I square up the corners of the flat frame, butt the pieces together, and set the 2" x 4" mending plate across the seam. The plate has an array of extruded spikes of metal sticking out about a quarter inch on the back. With about ten solid taps of a sledge hammer to drive the spikes into the surface of the wood, I have now created a corner joint that is about four times stronger than a plywood-reinforced corner. I use the mending plates on both the front and back of the joint for stability. A single MP24 is around $0.65 each, but I recommend you buy a sealed box of 100 as it's easier to manage, you're sure to get EXACTLY 100 units, and you don't have to fumble through a box of sharp metal with your bare hands.
   
2. D.A.L.E.S Corporation POURit Reusable Paint Can Covers - Latex house paint is my medium of choice: it's easy to clean up, predictable in it's properies, and you can get a custom color mixed for about $10 a gallon (not to mention Oops paint, below). Metal paint cans are designed to store and deliver paint, but they are miserable to deal with when USING paint. The POURit Reusable Paint Can Cover solves this by giving you quick access to your paint. Simply snap a POURit onto the top of a one gallon metal paint bucket, and you're good to go. A built-in screw top gives you ready access to your paint, and when the paint is used up, you can clean up the POURit and use it on another can. A POURit goes for around $2.50 at most home improvement centers, although the larger chains don't always carry them.
3. ROSCO Gaffer's Tape - Ahhhh, there's nothing more satisfying than a GOOD roll of gaffer's tape. I've tried to cut corners and use black duct tape, but it's simply not the same thing. I have spent hours with a rag and a can of GooGone trying to remove the tape scum left over from bad tape, and the difference in price between a good roll of tape like ROSCO's Gaffer's Tape versus a cheap roll of duct tape is worth it. At about $15 a 55 yard roll (that's around 10 cents a foot), you get a consistently good level of adhesion with 100% removal of the product when done. Yeah, it's not as cheap as a $5 roll of duct tape (only about 3 cents a foot), but it makes your job easier in the long run.
4. Rose Brand Cable Path - If Gaffer's tape is an indulgence then Cable Path is an extravagance. It is twice as expensive as gaffer's tape, but you will make up the cost in convenience and waste. Available in either 4" or 6" widths, Cable Path has adhesive only at the edges of the tape, making it perfect for cable runs. It is available in black, yellow, or black and yellow striped. Although the rolls are only 30 yards, it is a great product. The 4" wide tape is around $23 a roll, and the 6" wide tape is around $35 a roll.
   
5. Behringer's LC2412 DMX Lighting Control Console - Thank goodness for the success of the DJ industry, as it has made technical theatre lighting infinitely more affordable than it would have been otherwise. Behringer is a great company out of Germany that understands what musicians and DJ's want: a great product at a great price. The LC2412 is a compact, rack-mountable DMX light board that goes for around $160 on eBay, significantly more from retailers. With 24 channels, sophisticated memory storage options, midi, analog, and other goodies, there's no reason why every technical theatre manager shouldn't have at least one of these hanging around, even with a more expensive installed system, the LC2412 is great for troubleshooting and isolating problems in specific DMX loops. I have used it in situations where a stage manager needed to control a set of onstage practical lamps and lights independent of the master lighting board, and this board did the trick. The only hitch is that you will need to pick up a 5 to 3 pin converter, as most low-end DMX dimmer packs use the 3 pin couplers with standard microphone cables. The LC2412 has only a 5 pin port.
6. DMX four channel 15 Amp Dimmer Pack - I don't mention any specific brands on this item, because they are essentially commodity components, but American DJ, Chauvet, and DTech all have similar offerings. Most of these items are about 5 lbs, and are about the size of a large shoebox. The unit has either dip switches or a digital display for setting the base DMX address and number of channels, and the front side has four banks of two Edison-style plugs. Also included are two 3-pin (DMX IN and DMX OUT) jacks for use with standard microphone cables. Again, technical directors of small theatres have benefitted in the success of the DJ industry, having the ability to buy solid DMX equipment at a reasonable price. The best prices I've seen on these items are on eBay, with average price going for around $70 with about $8 for UPS ground shipping. As with the LC2412, every technical director should have a few of these hanging around to troubleshoot and for ad hoc lighting gigs in support of a larger, installed system.
7. Oops Paint - When paint manufacturers embraced the advances made in latex paint in the mid 1970's they created a safer environment for us all. Today, you can get a one gallon bucket of latex paint with better colorfastness, durability, and cleanup than even the best non-latex (oil, casein, etc.) paints from the pre-latex era. All of the major home improvement chains offer custom color mixing of latex, in a range of quality/price of paints. With all of this creative freedom comes the inevitable goof-up. A customer picks a paint chip, has it mixed, and then realizes it's much brighter/louder on the wall than they intended. So they bring the paint back to the store and get another. The store then tosses that "bad" paint bucket over onto a bargain rack, usually selling for $3 to $5 each (depending on the base cost of the original paint). I will routinely scour this rack for colors that I can use for sets, and I often make color design choices from these offerings. You'll usually find a lot of browns and pinks there, but an occasional blue, green, or yellow will pop up. The more affluent the community, and the larger the store, the more selection you will find. Mondays, and particularly Mondays after three-day weekends are best for new additions. Make sure you get the type of paint you need. There will be an occasional concrete or wood stain thrown in, or a heavy gloss lacquer, and sometimes a non-latex bucket, so choose carefully.
8. 50% off Coupon at Joann's Fabric - I usually build hard flats, but for backdrops I use muslin. Also, whenever I want a better "finish" to a hard flat, I will skin it with muslin as well. My brand of choice (availability, actually) is RocLon, and I buy muslin by the bolt (25 yards, usually) in the 120" wide variety. Ripped in half vertically, it's the perfect width for covering 4' wide flats. I avoid the high thread count versions, as they don't offer me anything special (except added price). And the thing I always do when buying this is to wait until Joann's Fabric has their 50% off on any single item coupon in the local paper. This coupon is also sent out to you via mail if you sign up for their mailing list, but if you don't use it after 3 months, they stop sending it to you and you have to sign back up. On a 25 yard, 120" wide, full retail price is $6.99 a yard for a total of $174.75. With the coupon, it's just $92.85 with CA state and City of Los Angeles sales tax. Those 25 yards will cover about 16 @ 4'x8' flats with enough left over for dutchman (if you use muslin for dutchman anymore) or small projects.
9. Masking Tape - There are three main uses I have for masking tape: dutchman, spiking/taping the stage floor, and masking during painting. Dutchman is the semi-derrogatory term for the strip of fabric or tape used to smooth the edges (and gap) between two flats. Traditional muslin dutchman is a wet process, so you have to use either latex paint or watered down glue as an adhesive: the paint is not the best adhesive, and the glue rejects paint to a certain degree. So, I buy the large 6 roll contractor's pack of 2" wide plain tan masking tape for my dutchman work. Since it has its own adhesive, it's a quick, dry process. I also use small "tabs" of this tape to patch screw holes or other imperfections prior to final painting. it's flexible enough to even round out gaps in corners of crown or baseboard moulding. On most sets, I will go through two full 60 yard rolls of it. Surprisingly, the surface holds latex paint VERY well without peeling or cracking of the surface paint, and it is fairly easy to remove during strike without damaging the flats. For spiking or taping the floorplan, I use the green 1" wide masking tape as it's adhesive makes it much easier to remove, even after a month and a half of heavy foot trafic on the stage floor. The bright green makes it easy to see under most stage lights, and it's generally pretty "fun" to work with. Finally, I use masking tape for what it was intended: to mask areas from paint that need to be kept clean. I use this particularly when painting moulding and trim, or if I need to have a straight line somewhere. In this situation, or when I'm masking paint that is fairly new, I will use the blue masking tape, as it seems to be more forgiving in that instance. 3M Brand 2" masking tape in a 6-pack is around $12. The 3M Brand green and blue 1" masking tape is about $3 a roll, less in a multipack.
10. Ryobi Quick Change Countersink Bits - In set construction, I often have to deal with lumber that is less than ideal. Particularly when connecting 1x stock, I have to pre-tap the holes to prevent splitting the wood. The Ryobi Quick Change Countersink Bit set comes in several of their packaged bit kits, but usually goes for around $12 by itself. The "Quick Change" part of it is that the countersink bit is on one side of the shank, and the other side is a bit for Phillips or slotted driving. That way, you can quickly tap and then drive with the same tool and without changing out the bits. Simply slide the brass collar back and forth to lock and unlock the shank, and you're set. My only complaint is that the smaller drill bits break off far too easily. On a typical project, I will go through three or four of them if I'm not careful, so buy a few spares and keep them close. If you only show about 1/4" of drill bit, the chances of breaking it off are less, but when I start moving quickly, it's easy to pull it out at a slight angle and break off the bit. Fortunately, I can usually just slide the existing bit down two or three times to extend the life, but the broken tip can make the bit skitter across the surface away from it's intended target. Regardless, I get better results with the often dry, brittle spruce I use with this tool.

So that's it for this year. I've tried to include links wherever possible, but some are just not available. I hope these will offer you the same degree of increased productivity that I have enjoyed. When you're the only one working at 2:00 AM in the morning, you need all the assistance you can get, even if it's only from a tool that works well.


- Sean