# Scenery Q.O.T.W.-Building a Chess Board (11/6/09)



## Footer (Nov 7, 2009)

You are working on a production of Chess as a Technical Director at an equity LORT C house. The designer has charged you with creating a Chess Board set at a 45 degree angle to the stage, so that the point of the board hits downstage center and the other point hits upstage center. The designer also indicates that the board should be raked at a rate of seven degrees. The lighting designer has requested that the white portions of the board should be able to be lit up but when no light is present they should appear white. 

How should you build this design? What materials should you use? What other considerations should be made?


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## photoatdv (Nov 7, 2009)

Uh the equity people don't like raked stages...


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## Van (Nov 7, 2009)

photoatdv said:


> Uh the equity people don't like raked stages...


 This is true but check your rule book. You have a copy? Right ? 
Good QOTW!


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## photoatdv (Nov 7, 2009)

Nope (doesn't really apply to the stuff I do)... I've just heard about that before.

I don't do carp stuff nor do I work for an equity theatre... so that's about my knowledge of this. When I have time to really think I might be able to come up with the white material though...


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## Reynolds (Nov 8, 2009)

First, some things I'd want to clear up with the designer/director:

Big question: 
Will the board be walked across by actors?

Minor issues:
Will tracks be needed to run chess pieces across the board?
Should the board fill the stage?
Should the board be square?


If the board will be left alone during the show (no actors/chess games) I would construct the board with aluminum frame suspending an 8x8 grid of squares (size of squares differing based on size of stage). I would use luan for black squares, and install the luan flush with the grid supports.

Depending on budget, I would use either a square of white scrim to fit beneath the grid frame, or another white cloth.

To light, ideally one would have enough instruments to focus on each square individually from above, or use cyc lights projecting up to light the fabric squares from underneath. With this option, I would mask the legs of the frame to avoid the aluminum being seen when the scrim becomes transparent.


If the board will be walked on during the show, I would use lumber to construct the base and add column style supports underneath the board at all joints or four foot intervals for larger pieces.

The frame of platforms would be painted in the style of a chess board, and a gelled instrument would be focused on each white square


To address the orientation and raking of the stage, if my calculations are correct, the board would need to gain 4.5 inches in height every foot.

In the case of the fabric board, to light the panels while the board is constructed on a rake and at an angle, cyc lights would need to be installed in both of the downstage sides so any loss of light coming through the panels would be spread upstage/downstage instead of stage left/stage right.


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## derekleffew (Nov 8, 2009)

Reynolds said:


> ...To address the orientation and raking of the stage, if my calculations are correct, the board would need to gain 4.5 inches in height every foot. ...


By my calculations, a rise of 4.5" over a run of 12" would yield ~20.6°.

What is the maximum rake permitted by AEA guidelines? By ADA guidelines?


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## Footer (Nov 8, 2009)

The board would look something like this....




Needs to be fully walkable. Each square would be at least 3x3. The rake starts downstage center and rakes upstage center.

In one of the many revivals of this show they automated the chess board so it could pivot any direction on a central axis. It ended up injuring most of the cast and the automation was cut.


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## scenerymaker (Nov 8, 2009)

The tangent of 7 degrees is 0.1228, so the rise is just under 1-1/2 " per foot. Could you make the white squares out of 3/4" white plastic with lights under them?


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## BrianWolfe (Nov 9, 2009)

Essentially build it as a heavy duty lightbox either making many small lightboxes or making the whole deck one big lightbox. Steel frame and legs with 3/4" transluscent white ploycarbonate decking. Paint the black squares opaque. Probably add an additional opaque layer of material(masonite, plastic or whatever) to insure opacity when the white squares are lit from below. Cover the sides of the deck with wood, masonite or fabric to keep the light from leaking out. The whole effect should be similar to the floor decking done for Broadway's Evita.


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## icewolf08 (Nov 18, 2009)

derekleffew said:


> By my calculations, a rise of 4.5" over a run of 12" would yield ~20.6°.
> 
> What is the maximum rake permitted by AEA guidelines? By ADA guidelines?



AEA says that any rake up to 3/4" per foot is acceptable. Over that you would have to add a rider to all the contracts and pay hazard pay.

If I were designing the show I would do the board in forced perspective as a square board at that angle will take up a lot of space and look kinda funny.

Now, what does the LD mean when he says that he wants the white squares to be visible/white when there is no light? Does he mean that he wants them to be backlit (or lit from below)? Need the thing to be backlit, does it need to be dimmable?

I don't know enough about the material, but I would doubt that you can really get away with an unsupported 3'x3' section of plexi unless it was pretty thick. This might be cost prohibitive. However, if you can afford the plexi to do it, then this is what I would do. If you have the space, I would make the squares 4'x4' so that you can evenly cut them from 4x8 sheet goods. Then build your platform with framing on 4' centers. Leg it up and away you go, just stay in the AEA guidelines for the rake.


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## levi (Jan 3, 2010)

if my budget was low i would consider using pvc piping for the frame and supports. if no one was going to be standing or walking on the board possibly use a thinner piping but if people will be on it use about 4 inches. We have had to do that a few times at our theater


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## Jackalope (Jan 3, 2010)

A four foot span unsupported would rule out any material that I could think of that would be able to handle that dynamic load and still be translucent--I would be curious as to what this material is and how much it would cost. BUT what if the squares were "marbled" in such a way that you could hide the supports in the grains of the marble for the white square. I.e you could construct this from steel tubing much like a platform, in the white squares you could bend flat stock on edege in curvilinear fashion and weld it into the frames to act as joists for your translucent material.. the more of these "joists" you weld in will decrease the stress the translucent material will take under the load. I think it would look more visually interesting as well. If the white squares are then underpainted with a translucent marble effect, it would look a lot less flat, and would hold up to abuse as it is under the plastic.
Let me know if this makes a lick of sense

I agree that a forced perspective chessboard would be far more interesting to build and of course to see. 

Jackalope
Community College TD, Designer, and um...er.. dishwasher


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## ajb (Jan 6, 2010)

The lighting effect needn't require much depth at all--look at Rosco's LitePad; something like that could be shop-built on a larger scale. Getting the right physical distribution of the sources and a suitable diffusion structure would require some experimentation of course, but something like that, where the sources and diffusion are in a single, robust sheet, can be installed on top of any kind of flat structural decking, making its structural properties moot and negating the need for any kind of fancy support structure.


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## albabe (Jan 7, 2010)

I know the original post is several months old, but wanted to chip in with a little info...

When I was at Bally's Las Vegas (_Jubilee!_) we had a row of footlights DS that were under clear plexi. See the bottom of:
http://static.px.yelp.com/bphoto/oNrOLp1iYP-I0_Yq78bnnQ/l
(not my picture)
The plexi was supported about every 30" and was about 1.25" thick (perhaps 1.5"). It was clear, but our carps sanded the top to give a translucent finish. The panels changed color somewhat with the lights, but looked white from the audience when the lights were off. The original post didn't say if the panels needed to look excatly like the provided picture of the Chess board (opaque, gloss white). 

In addition, we had to drill holes in the plexi to provide ventilation for the lighting fixtures (there was also a fan in the trough below the plexi).

In general, not enough info was provided in the initial post to solve the problems (what load on the floor, lit from above/below, etc). There are a lot of variables and a lot of solutions...
-alex-


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## propsusan (Jan 14, 2010)

The rake can be made less slippery for the performers with a product called "slip-no-more 2000" (which I refer to as b*tch-no-more...). It's a liquid rosin that can be sprayed with a hudson or mopped onto the deck. Dilute to your taste. 

We ususally give the raked deck a clean mopping then follow with the spray before each perormance. 

The poor-girl's method is to use sprite or other clear sodapop, but if that's not enough traction go with the slip-no-more.

susan


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## JohnG (Mar 19, 2010)

How about this...
You build a large frame out of lumber so it can be walked on...
Then for the white spaces you use glass block, with a undercoating of either a. light coats of white paint (so you can still light through it) or b. white scrim or muslin. Then the glass block is placed on top of that. The glass block creates for a nice effect as well as masking any material under it also a easy to clean surface as well as a nice surface to walk on. The black squares are just platforms that have a nice coat of black on them. If pieces do need to move accross you either fly them. Then when they move make your own system like track lighting uses to move the pieces easily across the stage. Regarding the rake, your lumber platform will do the trick and everything is built on top of it.
:neutral:


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