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THEATRE CURTAINS

Curtains

AALT proudly supplies and installs curtains and fabric from TSA. TSA is skilled in the manufacturing techniques required to produce your on stage theatre cloths and related products. With over 20 years of experience, TSA has the expertise to professionally produce any of the following products from our extensive range of quality fabrics. Our services include free on site measure and quote, design, manufacture and installation.

Types of Curtains

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Front-of-House curtains are the visual and sound barrier between the audience and the stage. The most common type is a bi-parting curtain i.e. a pair of curtains that overlap and split at the centre of the stage, and open to the sides.


Valance is a horizontal masking curtain usually made from the same material as the front-of-house and is suspended on a batten in front of the main curtain.


Masking curtains are used to hide the off-stage areas, divide the stage, and provide access to the main stage area. Masking curtains include Borders, Tabs and Legs (side curtains).


Borders are curtains that conceal lights and other equipment above the stage. Their size is usually determined by sight lines.


Intermediate tabs are used to divide the stage into smaller sections. They can also be used to hide equipment and backdrops at the rear of the stage.


Legs (side curtains) are used to hide the side of the stage from the audience's view. They also provide concealed wings for actors to enter and exit the stage.


Backdrops are usually manufactured from a seamless cotton fabric and they provide a scenic element to the stage. The seamless cotton is available in widths of up to 10 metres and is suitable for painting.


Floor cloths can be manufactured in seamless 6 oz canvas or a heavy-duty 12 oz canvas with seams.


Cycloramas are backdrops at the rear of the stage and are used primarily for lighting and projection purposes. They are generally manufactured from a white seamless cloth.


Gauzes are open weave fabrics that when lit from the front (and the stage behind the gauze is totally dark), the gauze appears opaque and renders the scene behind the gauze invisible. When the scene behind the gauze is illuminated and the front lights on the gauze are dimmed, the gauze becomes invisible, revealing the upstage scene.

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Projection screens are manufactured from a lightweight, fire-resistant vinyl fabric and can be made to your specific requirements.

Sound Control Curtains. When the Melbourne Museum installed curtains manufactured from our 520gsm wool, they independently tested all the wools available on the Australian market and found the TSA wool to have the best sound-controlling capabilities. Our wool curtains are also used for concerts at Telstra Dome because of their durability and sound controlling capabilities.

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Curtain Finish

Top finish. The top of the curtain is reinforced with heavy duty webbing made from cotton herringbone, jute or polyester. It is standard to use eyelets and cotton cord ties (A) to hang the curtains. For heavy duty applications, cotton webbing can be used in conjunction with eyelets and metal snap hooks (B).

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Side finish. A 50mm double hem is standard for our curtains.

Leading edge. The leading edge of a bi-parting curtain, particularly a main curtain, can have a portion of the face fabric turned back. This prevents the audience from seeing the rear of the curtain when in movement or during paging. Standard face back is 200mm for main curtains and 50-100 mm for tabs.

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Bottom Finish

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Chain pocket. For curtains with fullness, it is standard to finish with a 100mm-150mm base chain pocket. This pocket is reinforced with canvas and has Velcro tabs to secure the chain.

Pipe pocket. For curtains without fullness it is standard to finish with a 100mm base hem. The base hem remains open at the sides for easy insertion of a pipe.

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Curtain fullness is additional fabric sewn into a curtain by means of pleats.

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100% fullness indicates the curtain has been manufactured with twice as much fabric as the finished width.

50% fullness indicates the curtain has been manufactured from 1 1/2 times as much fabric as the finished width

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0% fullness indicates that the curtain is completely flat, i.e. no pleats.

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