Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Homemade Hallway Theater


We had so much fun this past weekend with our new theater. The kids had a blast putting on "shows." (Which brought up great memories of my friends and I putting on shows for our parents all those eons ago.)

First up was The Tick Tock Crock, starring Crocky the crocodile in his acting debut.


Next, I was treated to The Jammy Show, starring my daughter and every pair of clean pajamas she could find.

The final performance was an untitled work in progress about a snake, a wizard-princess, and a pajama-wearing kitten. (I gave it a standing ovation.) In this show my son wanted to change the way the curtains looked, so he decided to tape them to the wall. I kind of like the effect.


Putting the theater together was easy - I just strolled through the home area at Meijer. Armed with the width of my hallway (46 inches) I knew which of the three shower curtain tension rods to purchase and which curtains to buy. Sure I could have made all the fabric pieces myself, but I couldn't have bought the fabric for the price of the finished curtains. (Not to mention the value of my time!) If I had been willing to compromise on the color, I could have gotten curtains on clearance for $4.00 each. But I had to have red curtains; there's just something about them that made it look more like a real theater to me. Crazy, I know.

The back panel is slightly wider than the hallway - 54 inches if I remember correctly, but it works perfectly. Each red curtain is 42 inches wide - wide enough to still be gathered when they are closed. Before I bought them, I used the hanging samples in the store to make sure the rod pockets were large enough to hold a shower curtain rod. It was close, so I just used the bottom hem as the pocket. It was quite big, and it's loose enough for the kids to open and close them on their own. Looking back, I probably didn't need the big rods - smaller rods would have fit the bill just fine - probably would have been less expensive too. Oh well, live and learn.

All the costumes, A.K.A. our dress-up clothes, get stashed behind the back curtain - ready and waiting for the numerous costume changes involved in a good show. Perhaps sometime in the near future we'll have more scenic backdrops and a sign, but this will do for now.


I also could have done this cheaper by buying shorter curtains. I wanted the 84 inch long panels so my husband and I could open the curtains and walk through. That way the theater can stay up for several days at a time and my husband and I don't have to bend over every time we want to walk down that hallway.

What do you think? Should I save you a seat for tomorrow night's show?

7 comments:

kate said...

Yes please! Front row, if it's not too much trouble :)

stitching under oaks said...

I'll bring the popcorn! This is so fun. My girls would do things like this all the time when they were your kids ages...your stage is wonderful!

Val said...

How fun! I would have loved something like this as a kid. Kudos to you for letting the kids do something like this in the house. I'm sure they'll always have fond memories of it.

denice@inkstitch said...

Omigosh this is PERFECT! I made a hallway puppet theater some time ago but I love the simplicity of this, and that it goes all the way, ceiling to floor. Fun!

Manoute said...

Fantastic! The best way to have fun!

Deanna said...

Do you think there will be a show later in August???
Looks like so much fun...I bet your kiddos have a blast being the stars of their own show. :)

Longineswatch said...
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