Stage Lighting Diorama

An easy way to train students on the concepts of stage lighting, as well as develop some technical ability, is to use a diorama with full lighting controls.

1. 12" x 12" x 1/4" Plywood Boards (x2)

2. 8pc 3/8" x 12" Square Poplar Dowels

3. 3/4" Zinc pulleys (x2)

4. Adafruit Neopixel RGBW LED Strip (x3)

5. Elegoo UNO R3 with USB cable

6. Red fabric

7. Twine/String

8. Hot Glue Gun + Sticks

9. Female to Female Breadboard Jumper Wires

10. Zipties

11. Breadboard with 4 potentiometers and 4 toggle switches

Using the hot glue gun, glue the two 12"x12" boards together at a 90 degree angle to form the floor and background of the stage. Use extra glue along the inner edge if necessary to ensure they stay together.

Line two the 12" dowels up against the vertical board, keeping them on top of the bottom board so that they stick up slightly over the backing. Mark them with a pen or Sharpie, then cut them using any available tool.

Glue these two dowels vertically at the open corners of the floor board.

Using the vertical dowels and back wall as the reference points, measure and cut two more dowels that will fit horizontally between them.

Glue these dowels into place to form the horizontal scaffolding at the top of the stage. When finished, a cube shape should have been formed with the full set of dowels and boards (see photo).

Using a dark paint with either a spray can or brushes, paint the full structure and let it dry completely.

Using two zip ties, attach the pulleys through their top hole to the horizontal beams of the structure. Move them toward the backing board, around a 1/2" away.

Using some scissors, cut a piece of fabric around 11" by 12" Then, cut a series of holes spaced 3/4" apart along the top of the long axis of the fabric. Cut the fabric down the middle, splitting into two equal parts. Thread a piece of string or twine through the holes of one of the fabric halves, alternating the side of the fabric the string enters through so that it will fold up like an accordion when pushed together.

Run the string with the fabric on it through the pulleys that are hanging from the bars of the diorama. Position the fabric so that when extended, it covers up half of the backing panel. Loop the string around the pulley on the opposite side of the curtain that is already in place. Thread the other half of the curtain along this part of the string that runs the other direction. Run the end of the string back over the top of the pulley on which the first curtain hangs.

Tie two more lengths of string onto the main running string the curtains sit on, at the ends where the curtains meet. Hot glue the end of the curtain to the knot so that the curtains are carried towards each other when the bottom string is pulled. Hot glue the other ends of the curtains to the edge of the backing board so that they don't move and the curtain will pull flat when the inner edges are brought together.

Solder some standard male connectors to both ends of two of the Neopixel sticks and to only one side of the third. This will allow the female-to-female jumper wires to connect the lights in series.

Using the female-female connectors, wire up the LED sticks so that they run in one long cable. The stick that only has one connector goes at the end, so that extra pins are not hanging off the edge of the line. Using the hot glue, glue the three sticks along the outermost bar so that they face the back wall. Make sure to angle them down slightly so that they aim at the corner of the panels, where the stage would be behind the curtains (ignore that the lights in the image are on, yours do not have to be powered on yet).

Place the breadboard next to the microcontroller and begin wiring using male-male connectors into the pins shown. The four potentiometers are connected in series and when wired properly will correspond to the input pins on the microcontroller. These potentiometers should all be set as low as possible before testing the system.

The pre-made program included has all of the proper pins set up already for the microcontroller so long as the breadboard is wired correctly. In the Arduino IDE, make sure to select the Arduino UNO under the Tools tab and set the port to the COM port listed while the micro is plugged into a computer. Open the program in the files section then hit the small right-facing arrow at the top of the IDE to upload the program to the microcontroller. With the lighting cable plugged into the proper output pins, the lights should activate.

Play around with the potentiometers to edit the colors of the lights. Each potentiometer is set up to control one color mode: red, green, blue, and the warm white setting. Play a piece of music or place small figures on the stage to see how the lighting affects the mood. If so inclined, use the program and edit the test functions to create certain colors at certain timings. These can be synced up to music with plenty of trial and error.

Additional Reading

Here are some of the great sources we used while designing and researching the project:

F. Reid, The Stage Lighting Handbook, 6th ed. New York, NY; Routledge, 2001.