Detail from David Gallo's Dance Of The Vampires digital backdrop

Scenic backdrops have come a long way since Florentine artist and architect Filippo Brunelleschi discovered the principles of linear perspective in 1425. Using Brunelleschi’s system, artists could scientifically measure and draw a scene with visual depth onto a backdrop, and by the end of the 16th century it was all the rage on the stage. Three hundred years later, a new technology has been developed that has further affected set design. Using digital images and enormous printers, a backdrop for the stage can now be downloaded, printed and delivered in a week or less. Although digital backdrops will never replace hand-painted drops, in certain situations they do offer advantages to a designer.

Two processes are generally used in digital printing: inkjet and airbrush. In inkjet printing, the printer shoots out ink and produces dot matrix patterns onto a fabric that travels between two drums. With airbrush technology, the fabric is mounted on a drum and the printer head moves along it, shooting out semitransparent colors that are actually mixed in the air before landing on the material. According to Olle Lindqvist, president of digital printing company Big Image USA, based in Minneapolis, the material absorbs the ink, which won’t peel or chip off. Big Image, distributed by Rose Brand and I. Weiss & Sons in the U.S., was founded in 1987 in Sweden and utilizes 40-foot-wide printers in its production facilities in Sweden and Germany.

Using inkjet printers, backdrops can be printed on a number of coated (and some noncoated) fabrics. The resolution is approximately 300 dpi, similar to standard office printers, which can yield sharp, crisp prints from high-resolution originals. Digital printing using airbrush technology can be done on a wide range of materials, including cotton and synthetic fabrics, muslins, canvas, RP screen, sharkstooth scrim and even Venetian blinds. Seamless images can be printed up to 40 feet wide; alternatively, panels can be printed and joined together with an “invisible” seam.

Set designer David Gallo utilized airbrush digital printing in 1999 for the portals for You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown on Broadway. To create the world of a comic strip onstage, Gallo made a collage of 1950s funny pages filled with crossword puzzles, word jumbles and comic strips and had it digitally printed at a low resolution. The distortion and fuzziness gave the portals the quality of 1950s newsprint.

Three years later, Gallo again turned to digital printing, but for the opposite effect. Gallo wanted the “Times Square” backdrop for Dance Of The Vampires, a Broadway musical based on the 1960s Roman Polanski film, to look as much like a photograph as possible. After a photographer shot the area with a large format camera, Gallo scanned the photos and used Photoshop to create a unique composition of Times Square, complete with vampire-themed ads. Using an extremely high-quality resolution, the image was printed onto plastic RP screen, resulting in a very slick, photographic look that Gallo describes as “amazing.”

“Charlie Brown and Dance Of The Vampires were two opposite ends of the spectrum,” says Gallo, “And in both cases, digital printing was the proper application.”

A finished backdrop is laid out in front of the printer.

The cost of a digitally printed backdrop varies with the degree of resolution required and the material used. An average drop can range anywhere from $6 to $20 per square foot, although most drops seem to average in the $8 to $10 per square foot range. A digitally printed drop was used for the first time at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre this season, for a production of Amy Freed’s The Beard Of Avon. According to associate technical director Scott Conn, the cost of the digitally printed black-and-white drop about equaled that of having it painted by hand, with time and space constraints being the determining factors for going digital. The drop, designed by Michael Yeargan, contained elaborate architectural detailing.

“We didn’t have the time to paint all of the drops with the space and the amount of other scenery that had to be painted,” says Conn. He adds that the shop would consider doing more digital drops in the future, in order to stay within budget and on schedule, although Conn didn’t feel the Beard Of Avon drop had the “flair” of a hand-painted drop.

Digital backdrops provide certain advantages. If a backdrop is damaged, it can be quickly and easily replaced, which may be particularly useful for touring show drops that get a lot of wear and tear. The images can be saved on a database and used again, even 10 years down the road. The printed drops also can be hung and stored multiple times without affecting the quality of the image. Turnaround time for a digitally printed backdrop can be quick: Big Image managed to get a product to a client in three days–not bad, considering this included two days of shipping.

However, the drops have their drawbacks. Metallic colors can’t be printed onto the fabric, and must be added to the backdrop by scenic artists. Scenic artists assert that they often have to correct, enhance and sharpen digitally printed media to achieve the effect the designer originally intended.

Nancy Orr, scenic charge at Showman Fabricators in Brooklyn, NY, has been painting scenery for over 25 years and has noticed a rise in use of digital backdrops. “A lot of the drops that historically would have been painted by scenic artists 10 years ago are being bid now as ‘to be digitally printed and enhanced by scenic artists,’” says Orr.

As the demand for faster turnaround times increases, the difference between a painted and digital drop may diminish even further. “If, at the last minute, something is added to a show,” says product manager Diana Ricci of Rosco Digital Imaging in San Diego, “the artists can still do the artwork but not spend the hours or time under pressure.” Some scenic studios blow up a rendering digitally and use it as a pounce, saving the labor of having to draw it by hand.

Digitally printed Venetian blinds designed by Jonathan Ellers for Polar Express at the Bronx Zoo's Wildlife Theatre

Conn advises users of digital backdrops to research the various types of material available, which can affect the final result. Also, he recommends getting the designer’s approval on a sample before having the drop printed. In the case of the Beard Of Avon drop, the sample was lighter than the designer desired, so the black tones were punched up on the digital file before the drop was printed and delivered.

This winter, the Wildlife Theatre at the Bronx Zoo in New York City utilized digitally printed backdrops on Venetian blinds. With a quick pull, the backdrops for the children’s play The Polar Express changed from one image to another—a simple, magical solution for a temporary theater with no fly space or rigging. As a new generation of designers who have grown up working with computers rises through the ranks, the use of digital printing for the theater is sure to affect the stages—and the audiences—of the future.