The scene
A 12 × 12 m black box theatre, mid-way through a play set in a living room. The stage is a 7 × 4 m vinyl floor with a backcloth behind it and only a sofa, a coffee table and a floor lamp on it. The audience sits on six rows of retractable seating, close to the actors. The lights hang from bars 5 m overhead, and the control desk is in the corner behind the seating.
When it helps
- The producer or stage manager needs to confirm the stage and seating layout with the venue.
- The lighting, sound and set designers need one drawing to work from.
- You are estimating seat numbers and cable lengths.
What’s already laid out
- A 7 × 4 m vinyl stage floor with a backcloth behind and the set on it.
- Two lighting bars hung at 5 m, and a side-light stand on each side.
- Speakers either side of the stage and a haze machine at the edge.
- Six rows of retractable theatre seating.
- The control desk behind the seating on the right.
- Two cable runs: DMX from the desk to the lighting bars, and audio to the main speakers.
- Plus 7 figures for scale and circulation. If you don’t need them, delete them all in one go.
Making it yours
- Press “Start from this one”. The template opens in the editor as your own drawing; whatever you change, the original template stays as it was.
- Change the stage size directly; for end-on or thrust staging, just move the seating.
- Lighting bar height is the “Off ground” field, and the cable length includes the climb.
- The number of seating rows is adjustable.
- For anything missing, press Components at the bottom: search by name and click to place it. Select what you don’t need and press Delete.
- When the layout is right, press Download at the top right to save it as an image, then drop it into a deck or send it as it is.
What to settle first
- Lay the stage floor first. The extent of the vinyl is the extent of the acting area.
- Then hang the lighting bars and place the side lights and speakers.
- Pull out the seating and check the distance from the front row to the stage edge.
- Put the control desk in a corner that sees the whole stage, then run the cables.
What you end up with
- A layout drawing
- Download it as a PNG or JPG, at a resolution that holds up in a deck or a proposal.
- An object list
- The name and quantity of everything on the drawing. Change the drawing and the list changes with it.
- A length for every cable
- Power and signal runs have a length as soon as they are drawn. Order from those numbers.
- A link to send
- Once you sign in, the drawing can become a link that opens in any browser.
