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Permalink Reply by Alexandra Clark Thomson on December 27, 2011 at 4:30am

As a company that often does site specific work, we do this a lot. It also happens a lot in the Edinburgh Festival - where every single public space is converted into a theatre. I've been to some acoustical disasters in my time. Our last two shows have either been fully staged, or have had scenes set in, churches. Sound is indeed a problem. I have variously gone low-tech and hung drapes from the balcony down into the pews to soften things up or created a 'drape box' and higher tech by remixed sound specifically to work in the boomy room. Lots of visits beforehand to test drive all the options has helped. (Although you should bear in mind I'm visualising old, Scottish, stone-built churches here and our company member from St. Louis has sent me photos of some of the churches there and the scale seems a lot larger where you are!)

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Permalink Reply by Kevin M Mitchell on March 5, 2012 at 7:20am

Alexandra -- I'm doing an article on unusual spaces made for theaters -- can you shoot me your email address? kevin@kevinmmitchell.com.

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Permalink Reply by John Kimball on December 28, 2011 at 12:55pm

I work in this situation in two distinctly different fashions, temporarily converting an active church for a performance and permanently rebuilding an abandoned church for a performance space. Churches are generally open, high ceiling spaces with great live acoustics. Church architecture has evolved over millennia to accommodate the human voice in sermon and song, I'm constantly amazed at the clarity of sound from a medieval chamber group playing 17th century instruments with unreinforced vocals from my position at the back of the house. We have used reinforcement when needed for CD playback or masked actors but usually at a relatively low level. Take some time to listen to the room, as the level goes up so does the boom.

My biggest challenges with active churches are staging, lighting positions, power distro and access. It's not unusual to encounter flights of stairs, narrow doorways and ADA wheelchair lifts (try getting a 4'x8' platform on one of these). Load in and out can be arduous and time consuming, casters can only get you so far, for the most part it's hand carry. Also scheduling can be an issue, some churches have noon services and nightly choir practice or youth events. On one occasion we had to completely strike for a funeral, not an issue but a hassle and completely understood. One other thing to understand is what areas are sacred, find this out in advance. DO NOT PUT ANYTHING ON THE ALTAR. I thought this was a great position for a rear projector, I found I needed to quickly rethink this.

Churches are not built with power distribution in mind, usually this means tapping into a breaker panel (with permission of course). LEDs solve this somewhat except for long throw from the choir loft, a great position along with pipe and base booms and sometimes truss and lift towers. Be aware of the floor surface and use some kind of protection. Churches generally have their lights focused for specific use and do not want them moved. Be aware whatever is loaded in has to be struck and loaded out usually in a hurry at close before the service the next morning.

Finally, for the audience seated in the pews? Yes, this happens in an active church. For the best sightline the stage needs to be about 3' off the floor. Again this comes down to the shlep.

The other situation of permanently converting a church to a performance space can be anything from the same measures as above to a total rebuild, it's really all about the budget. Dreams are great, budgets are real. Consider the resources and use whatever you can get your hands on to get the doors open to stimulate interest. One project I worked on was a church abandoned do to a fire. We spent about half a year cleaning and relaying the floor finally opening with clip lights run on a rotary dimmer light board, a home stereo, 4x8 foamcore masking, seating on the floor supplemented by rented folding chairs. Soon we were getting lighting, sound and seating donated from theaters and TV studios; old but functionally useful. Eventually we had theatrical lighting and sound, a functional stage with a fly system and risered seating. This company continued to grow and still exists today in another location, but that's another story.

Another instance I'm aware of is a group with the grand plan of converting an old church into a complete theater that couldn't function until everything was in place, apparently not everything is working yet after 2 years in the process.

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Permalink Reply by Kevin M Mitchell on March 5, 2012 at 7:20am

John -- I'm doing an article on unusual spaces made for theaters -- can you shoot me your email address? kevin@kevinmmitchell.com.

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