Newspaper World

The Creative and Visual Arts Teams from Grace Community Church in Washingtonville, NY brings us this recycled newspaper stage design.

For this stage design, they really wanted to visually complement their new Fall sermon series, “The End of the World As We Know It [And I Feel Fine]”. This overall design consisted of three stages: 1) Building the background 2) Drawing and decoupaging the continents onto the background, and 3) Installing LED lights to light the backdrop and truss.

First, their Creative Arts Team and volunteers designed and built stage flats out of plywood and painted them matte black. Next, their Visual Arts Director and team drew “continent patterns” across the backdrop. Once the composition was set, the crew tore black and white newspapers to palm-sized pieces and glued the paper layers (glue-water mixture) onto the continent shapes (being sure to vary the black/white/gray gradients). Finally, their Production Director led a team installing LED lights for the background, truss, and stage.

The entire set took about a week to construct. They used the lights they had, but the stage flats cost under $200. The decoupage newspapers (recycled…and free) added a nice texture for up-lighting.