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Theater in need of curtains
posted by
amyb
on
August 30, 2006 at 4:45 am
We have a small theater in Hollywood that is in need of some theater curtains. If anyone has some that are going to waste, we could use them. We don’t have a budget and we are not a cinema. We are a live theater, but we do teach students to prepare for the Silver Screen. Please email me if you have any info that may help us find what we need.
Thanks so much.
Comments (2)
You don’t mention dimensions (portal size and amount of overlap desired/possible), but your best bet to get a curtain as a freebie is to visit the managers of local Theatre suppliers and Scenic Studios (in the Business-to-Business Yellow Pages) and ask if they have something suitable to donate to your group: have a tax credit form in your hand ready to fill out. Be sure to know the dimensions I mentioned when you go there and what, if any, rigging is already available on your stage. If your place has no suitable rigging, it may be best not to ask for it from the same vendor that may already be giving you the drapery. After you get the curtain, go elsewhere to beg for rigging.
Note that rigging a large curtain requires experience, since it can rip easily if misinstalled, and should it fall, it will be hundreds of pounds on top of someone, and such mere cloth HAS killed people in the past. If you are hanging much more than a bed sheet, it requires professional installation! Sources of such large curtains may be more willing to donate if you can manage to at least pay them for their safe installation at your location.
Contact Steve Markham in care of the L.A. ORPHEUM; he may well know whats available there since he lives there and provides and repairs curtains throught So. California. If you can get a donation, but don’t like the color, or it needs repairs, Steve can help you with that too. He is a member of www.historictheatres.org and they also can put you in touch with him.
Being in Hollywood it is also possible that one or more of the film studios has long-unused curtains in one of their warehouses. Possibly a polite letter ON YOUR GROUP’S LETTERHEAD (to show that you are formally existing with your state sales tax exemption number and your 501c3 Fed. Number), and the head of a studio may direct his senior Properties Manager to locate something for you.
Not forget the curtains have to be treated against flames.