When the play you are putting on is supposed to take place in the great outdoors you need to be able to convince the audience that you are actually outside. The only way you can successfully do this is with a carefully created scenic backdrop. With a well thought out and skillfully created image behind the players on stage you will have the audience believing that they are actually in the great outdoors instead of sitting in a theatre watching a performance. Because Mother Nature provides us with a tremendous canvas to work from you can create practically any type of scenic backdrop that you need. It is possible to suit a set of backdrops that can take your play through the seasons or to different areas of the world by simply changing them out between scenes. All you have to do is decide what scenery you need to have while your play is in preproduction so that you have time to get them ready for your opening night. You do not have to stick with all outdoor scenes for your scenic backdrop, when the scene is supposed to be inside the last thing you want is a backdrop of trees and hills.

You can create a complete interior atmosphere with a few select items of furniture and a well thought out backdrop. Designed properly a good backdrop can appear to be almost three dimensional to add the illusion of a room to the stage. Convincing your audience that the flat wall behind the actors is a three dimensional room can take high quality printing or someone who is a highly skilled painter to create the illusion. There are currently several different methods of creating a scenic backdrop for your next production; you could stick with the tried and true method of hiring a crew to paint each backdrop by hand. This can take up to several months depending on how many backdrops you are going to need and be very expensive as you have to pay not only for materials, but the artists salaries as well which are not inexpensive. Today one of the fastest methods of creating a scenic backdrop is to have the image printed directly onto cloth that can be hung quickly.

There are different methods of printing the image, however dye sublimation seems to be the latest and most accurate way to produce an image on cloth that contains a full spectrum of colors that will not run, bleed or blur together. Once the image is printed the cloth is run through a heat calendar at 400° F to ensure that it will not crack or fade over time. At EACGS you will find the only 16 foot wide dye sublimation printer in the US, they can create any backdrop you need for your next production. Often your new backdrop can be created in as little as 2 weeks depending on the image and the size, which is far less time than having them painted by hand and at a far lower cost saving you money and time.