Staging on a 40 Foot Wide Proscenium: What You Actually Deal With
The El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood has a Debbie Reynolds Mainstage that opens to a 40-foot proscenium. That number sounds generous until you realize it includes wing space, the arch itself, and whatever you're forcing through the back wall. I've been pulling this kind of load-in since before streaming venues became the default complaint on every tech crew's Facebook group, and I'm still surprised by how many production designers treat that 40-foot measurement like a free pass. Here's the practical breakdown. The proscenium opening is approximately 40 feet wide by about 24 feet high at the thinnest point. The stage deck extends roughly 40 feet deep from the face of the stage to the back wall, though that depth changes if you're dealing with the fly tower or any raised platform configurations. House seating runs about 600 across three levels: orchestra, mezzanine, and the balcony box seats near the side walls. The rigging system is a motorized grid with approximately 24 pipe positions running cross-stage. Most positions are rated for 500 pounds, but a handful near the front—positions 1 through 6—are rated higher, around 800 pounds each, because they're backed by separate motors. You can hang a mid-size LED video wall on positions 3 through 5 and it'll hold. Try to stack two fixtures and a truss on position 7 and you're pushing into danger territory.
I ran into a real problem last season when a client wanted to install a 20-foot-by-12-foot cyclorama frame that had to clear the rear wall doorway while simultaneously accommodating a 10-foot overhead barn door swing. The math said it would fit on paper. In practice, the existing pipe positions in that area were already loaded with lighting and the structural bracing behind the cyc frame blocked the door's upward path. I ended up rebuilding the cyc support as a freestanding truss rig from the grid instead, which gave us the clearance we needed but cost us two positions on the front grid that we'd planned to use for wash lighting. We rearranged the light plot to share instruments on dimmer channels and called it a day.
Getting Your Set Through the Door
The main stage loading dock is accessed through the alley behind the building. It's tight. Not dangerous-tight, but you'll be maneuvering a 4-foot-by-8-foot flat through a corridor that's maybe 5 feet wide with overhead pipes at ceiling level. I always recommend doing a dry walkthrough with your set pieces before the actual load-in day. You'd be amazed how many crews don't bother and then spend four hours trying to angle a 14-foot wall into a space that won't take it without removing a light stand first. Electrical capacity is another thing people underestimate. The house provides a 200-amp service with a full dimmer rack, but if you're bringing your own power distribution and lighting console, you'll want to coordinate with the house electrician about breaker sharing. Last year I had a client try to run a full automated lighting rig plus a video playback server off the same circuit as the HVAC system. The breakers didn't trip, but the voltage sag was noticeable and caused flickering on a couple of the LED units. Separate circuits for high-draw automation gear and sensitive video equipment saved us from having an emergency during tech week.
Get the Full Details
Acoustics and Sound Design Considerations
The theater was originally built in the 1920s and renovated in the 1990s, which means the acoustics sit somewhere between a dry black box and a live cathedral. The plaster walls and wooden floor reflect a lot of low-mid frequencies. If you're doing a play with live actors and minimal amplification, it sounds warm and natural. If you're running a rock show with full PA and monitors, you'll be fighting comb filtering between the main array and the side fills. I usually suggest a minimal PA setup with directional line arrays pointed toward the audience rather than trying to fill the space with Omnidirectional speakers. It cuts the sound system rental cost and gives you cleaner coverage. The house has a basic QSC system installed already—two subs, four main speakers, and a digital mixer. It's adequate for spoken word and small ensembles. For anything larger, you'll need to bring your own reinforcement, and the theater's power and rigging can handle it without issue. Just remember that the side walls have limited attachment points for speaker hangs, and the balcony railing isn't rated for suspension hardware. Don't try to rig speakers from the balcony anyway—it's against code and the fire marshal will shut you down mid-setup.
Practical Workflow for a One-Week Turnaround
Most companies booking this space run a six-day load-in to strike schedule. Here's what I typically see work: Day 1: Load-in and set construction begins. The dock and corridors are clear by 7 AM. Bring all your material on the first day—you don't want to be lugging flats up the side stairs on day three when everyone else is moving at the same time. Day 2: Set pieces go into place. Lighting hang starts simultaneously with rigging. Use the front grid positions for your follow spots and key lights. Save the rear positions for specials and effects.
Day 3: Focus pull and lamp out. Sound check with the actors. This is usually when the real problems surface—the cyc frame isn't square, a dimmer is ghosting on channel 47, the monitor wedge is feedbacking at a specific frequency. Day 4: Dress rehearsal. Book the house early for this—there are only so many seats and if you don't confirm the exact arrangement, you'll end up with the front row three feet from the proscenium edge and your sightlines will be messed up for the designers. Day 5: Performance day. Strike begins after the show. Don't wait until the next morning. Get the bulky pieces out while the crew is still warm and the dock is available.
Day 6: Final strike and cleanup. Leave the space as you found it. The theater's management keeps a short list of repeat customers who don't leave debris on the stage deck, and being on that list means you get priority scheduling for future bookings. The 40-foot width is really just a starting point. The actual challenge is how you use the space between that opening and wherever your audience sits, accounting for rigging limits, power constraints, and the fact that every theater has at least one quirk that won't show up on the floor plan. Figure out your quirks early, document them, and don't assume the next company booking the space will have the same luck you did finding a workaround.
