Staging a stage

DFW Champaru Okinawa Society dancer

When it comes to decor, the stage is often overlooked.  However, it is one of the best ways to transform an event.  If you are lucky enough to even have an auditorium, then you are most likely sharing it with other departments.  Therefore, the stage is not exactly built as a normal stage would be.  For example, our stage has no backstage.  It is a wall that cannot be accessed from the opposite side.  This makes decorating it a severe challenge.  Another issue is that it was covered in what I can only describe as some sort of vinyl that regular booktape seems to not want to stick to.  Actually tonight I’m going to experiment with duct tape and see how that fares.

If you have a plan and enough manpower you too can “wallpaper” your stage for really big events.  If you have rolls of paper for doing bulletin boards, this works well.  I take the rolls and measure off 8 1/2 feet for 12 sheets.  Then take it to the auditorium and cover the walls.  We “hook” it to the back wall and then tape the first sheet down as best we can to the wall.  All subsequent sheets will then be taped to each other and lightly taped to the wall where it cannot be seen by the public. 

Then take other accessories and tape them to your wallpaper as needed.

Never underestimate the power of a tablecloth

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A while back it was discovered that direct sales led to more people attending certain programming.  Since library publicity machines are mostly word of mouth, what do you do when you don’t come into contact with a lot of patrons because you’re too busy planning and arranging your programs.  I’ve long since stopped expecting the Circ people to take the initiative.  So, we decided that if we could make the general public aware of a program as they entered the building we’d have an interested audience and over time it would build up into a faithful following. 

One aspect of this “direct sales” approach was to decorate the lobby where people entered the building.  After all, good decoration could peek someone’s interest right away.  But lobbies are huge, not to mention sometimes a little clumsy to decorate.  With high ceilings and light fixtures and display cases, this is no easy feat.

Honestly, I’d say that you should probably find the most focal feature and tackle that for the best effect.  In our case, it is a huge glass display case.  The trick was to cover it with something that tied into the programming with the least amount of manpower possible.  After all, chances are you have desk hours too just like everyone else!

So I found that plastic tablecloths are a god-send.  The first thing I will say is that ususally we all have them from one program to the next in various colors.  Secondly, they are so cheap…probably a dollar or two each.  They are also easier to maneuver than paper and can be stretched to remove creases.  It can also do cloth like things, such as drape or swag.  I know that it might seem silly but you never know what you might need that could be cheaply replicated through the creative use of plastic tablecloths.

Why here? Why now?

I’ve worked in public libraries for going on fifteen years now.  Why did I decide to make it my career?  Because I love answering the same question over and over again?  Or perhaps because I love the smell of the pc lab in the morning?  Nope and uh…no!  I do it because I believe that I can make the most impact on lives here.  By being a light in dark places I feel that I can help bring a little bit of good into this world.  And judging from some of my well meaning but horribly jaded co-workers I am even more confident that libraries need people who aren’t just doing this to make decent money, or need a place to feel superior to others, or just like books (but don’t like people).

Libraries are changing for the worse, or for the better.  One of the biggest trends have been towards programming, and although computer programming is still on the rise that is not what I’m referring to.  I mean programming as in entertainment for the masses.  Ooops, did I just say that?  What I really meant to say was that programming is event planning with the hopes of educating or illuminating the masses in some way.  Therefore, programming takes on various forms.  You have cultural programming.  There is also multicultural programming.  Educational programming.  Children’s programming.  Adult programming.  Teen programming…etc, etc, etc!

A friend of mine lamented a few weeks ago after losing a teen librarian job because she didn’t want to do programming that she just wanted to be a full-time normal librarian!  I’m sure there are plenty of people who wish for the days when programming was not such a focus.  Unfortunately there is not a whole lot that can be done.  Programming budgets can be really upsetting at times.  I would venture to say that regardless of how much you have, it is never enough.  But if you have budget overseers who view certain non-programming, programming monies as the higher priorities, then even with a decent budget you’re still finding yourself begging performers to lower their fees and what not.  Well, this is why I wanted to start this blog.  To share my knowledge and creative ideas with you and help you save that money for what you need!

In the coming days, weeks, months I’ll be sharing my stories and I hope to hear some of your ideas as well. 

Enjoy!

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