Technical Design Solutions for Theatre

Michael Broh

Simple and Inexpensive Stained Glass

The Yale School of Drama’s production of Soyenka’s The Road featured a wonderfully simple and yet effective stained glass window. It consisted of a single piece of clear plastic vinyl sheeting stretched over an open frame with self-adhesive foam weather stripping as “leading.” With three different painting techniques used in finishing the window, the overall effect, shown in Figure 1, was excellent both up close and at a distance.

CONSTRUCTION

The window’s 4′ × 10′ frame was made from 1½″×1 ½″ angle iron to eliminate the need for internal toggles. Lauan nailing strips tek-screwed to the steel provided a stapling surface for a 54″ × 10′ piece of 32-mil clear PVC vinyl sheeting. Since the sheeting ...