Stage Designs

Polygonal

Duncan Campbell from New Braunfels Church of Christ in New Braunfels, TX brings us this cool polygon stage design.

From Duncan: Our youth group participated in San Antonio Work Camp, for which we built the stage. I was really inspired by Bryan Copperthite’s 3D Pyramid design at Grace Community Church, and wanted to make a similar version for a smaller space. Our tweak was to add more and more dimension to the design over the course of days and sessions of worship. This required screwing and re-screwing the backdrop to the frame with varying levels of undulation. We just experimented until it looked right and the texture caught the light really well. The theme of Work Camp was “One Heart,” and for the final night, we took the backdrop completely off the rigging and shaped it into a 3D heart in the middle of the room to match the theme graphic. We lit it from the inside with 8 LED Par Cans and even made it pulse to a heart beat sound effect for the final session.

  • 8 sheets of 4×8 Coroplast, cut into 16 triangles each
  • 6 rolls duct tape
  • 10 2x4s and screws for the frame
  • Black spray paint to mask frame
  • 8 SLIMpar 64s from the youth ministry.

We could have mapped the wall and the heart with video, but we decided to keep it simple and just use lighting to tell the story.

With a bigger budget or for a bigger space, I would have used gaff tape and I would have had the triangles cut professionally for precision. But for this space, cutting them by hand and using duct tape worked fine.

Also be sure to check out Duncan’s book, Thin Places.

Are You a Warrior? Light & Jagged

4 responses to “Polygonal”

  1. Imelda says:

    Hi there. Did you have to re-tape the triangles when you adjusted them from flat to 3D, or is the whole shape fairly easy to manipulate? Also, do you have any photos from the back when the wall was flat and 3D (not in the heart shape) to better see how it’s screwed in?

    • Duncan Campbell says:

      I’m so sorry it’s taken me this long to get back!

      No, I didn’t have to re-tape the triangles. They had enough play in them that we could just ‘scrunch’ it together then screw it to the frame. We just used 3″ wood screws and drilled from the front in strategic places to get the look we wanted, then covered the screw with a small piece of duct tape to match the seams. I’m sorry I don’t have any pictures from the back!

      As far as manipulating, it was definitely a two or three man job. But once we got the top screwed in, it was easier to adjust and screw in the bottom. It wasn’t that heavy, but it was awkward. And it was easily adjustable. We’d put in a screw, see how we liked it and how the light hit it, and readjust as necessary.

  2. Kurt Moucha says:

    Great design! Did you tape both sides of the triangle panel (it looks like you did, but I can’t say for sure)? Also, how much space did you allow between each triangle before taping them? Thanks in advance!

    • Duncan Campbell says:

      Hi there! Yes, I did tape both sides for stability. I allowed about ¼” or the width of a pencil. That turned out to be the best spacing and allowed the most flexibility.

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