Castors Help to Move Stage Props

It’s just a fact that castors are pretty much everywhere you look today; under the chairs or equipment at your place of work, under carts at the market and of course if you like house cleaning the easy way, castors are under all your heavy furniture at home. So is there any place yet that people haven’t yet thought of putting them?



Well one such place, is back stage at live theatre productions. Now do understand that theatre companies are of course using castors but just not as many as there should be.



What set designers and builders may not realize though is that just like so many other products in recent years, as quality and selection has gone up, so too has the overall cost come down. Also today’s castors are far easier to interchange, remove and then reinstall. So not only are castors more affordable to buy but castors are easier to use in more ways.



Now as far as castors to move stage props are concerned, it's what they bring to the show that’s most important. In the end no matter how high or low the production budget is, the show must delight the audience. So then how can putting your props on castors help a crew to put together a more delightful show?



For starters, shorter intermissions between scenes make for a brisk pace and less time for folks minds to wander. After the curtain drops what used to take minutes without castors, now can take mere seconds, and what a surprise when the audience sees how much set change has transpired in so short a time.



Along the same line, mobile set props that are rolled rather than lifted means far fewer weight, and size limitations. Props that you may have never considered using in a production before can now be placed on castors and moved by just one stage hand. Larger props also ramp up the "wow factor" on a set for sure.



Lastly, don’t forget that jacking castors allow you to move even heavy stage props up and down as well as laterally. It's just one more creative limitation that's eliminated because with jacking castors much larger and heavier objects that require elevating on a set are now an option.



Chris Tyrrell writes for Ross Handling, the leading supplier of Castors in the UK. Visit the website for more details: http://www.rosshandling.co.uk