TheatreWorld® Backdrops' Commitment to Excellence, Customer Service, and Quality
TheatreWorld Backdrops is committed to excellence at all levels of Theatre and Event backdrop production, from design and development to planning and execution, from quality control at every stage to support and service to our clients.
The attention to detail begins at the design and planning phase for a new backdrop. Our design team is made up of professionals from around the world, several of whom are recognized artists who participate in art showings in their home countries and abroad. TheatreWorld’s team, while designing, takes cues from Mother Nature, History, Film, Stage, and beautiful architecture around the world. We do all we can to make the resulting hand-painted image as realistic and natural as possible and, where required, as stylized as possible, but whatever the goal it's always a masterpiece of art. Once the base design, sketch or image, audience view, and color pallet is approved, the design is moved into the production sequence.
TheatreWorld’s production is quite detailed and our producer has received multiple certifications in quality of production from a variety of international entities. Backdrop fabrication is a cornerstone phase in product development. We begin with a medium weight (circa 165 grams per square meter), high density construction and supreme yarn quality muslin fabric. The fabric is completely submerged (fully impregnated, thus called durable) in an US-approved flame retardant comprised of environmentally friendly chemicals. The result exceeds all regulations and recommendations by some distance. Post drying operations, the fabric is cut and/or sewn to size, all sides are hemmed, the top of the backdrop is reinforced, grommets are installed circa every 12”, an independent and hidden 5”pole pocket is sewn onto the bottom of the drop on the back side, then basting stitches are sewn onto the very bottom of the backdrop.
During the hand-painting processes, environmentally friendly paints are used by all production team members. Each stage of the painting process is reviewed by senior artists and the final backdrops go through a series of reviews by senior management which is comprised of top, renowned artists. Once fully dried, the backdrops are photographed in natural light and forwarded to TheatreWorld’s Tampa operations quality control team. The Tampa team inspects every backdrop, adds tie-line, steams the backdrop, and photographs the backdrop again; backdrops are then placed in breathable cotton storage bags until they are scheduled to ship to our clients.
When the backdrops are scheduled to ship to a client, the team removes the storage bag, checks the backdrop quickly, places the drop in a TheatreWorld black travel bag, and places it in the designated shipping box for transport to the client.
When the backdrop returns to TheatreWorld from the client, it is laid out on the floor and inspected by two team members, all returning backdrops are processed by the team to remove any debris; they then refold the backdrop and put it back in the in-house storage bag. If the backdrop requires steaming, it is noted in our systems and scheduled for steaming prior to release to the next client. If the backdrop has been damaged by the client, photographs are taken, the damage is categorized, a temporary repair is made with full repair scheduled for the future, or the backdrop is pulled out from service and scheduled for repair by our repair teams. When client damages a backdrop, they receive a complete photo package of the issues by our quality control and administrative teams. We fully understand accidents happen and we try to be as reasonable as possible with our very important clients.
To ensure TheatreWorld Backdrops maintains high quality standards, our teams and our systems continually monitor the condition of all backdrops in our rental inventories. We are regularly have our local painting teams touch-up areas of wear or scratches on the backdrops whenever needed. TheatreWorld’s teams monitor backdrop rental cycles on an ongoing basis and make adjustments in our ordering of new duplicate units, keeping necessary repair cycles in mind.
During the summer of 2016, we will be introducing a new page to the website. This page will feature specific backdrop units that have been downgraded from our top status of Grade 5 to Grades 4 and 3. These units will work well for stage productions, as the gentle wear or repairs made by our teams will not be visible to audiences. Each individual backdrop will have a current photograph displayed on the site. These photos will be taken in a theatre by our teams and will show the condition of the backdrop when downgraded. We will be lowering the rental and purchase pricing of these specific backdrops, making them even more production-budget friendly. Many of you have been asking us about gently-used inventory; until now, because of the fact that our rental units have only been built since 2012 and are virtually new, we did not have a positive answer for you. Beginning this summer, we will, to a limited extent, have a growing number of less costly options available to you, as some units fail to meet our rigid Grade 5 standards.
TheatreWorld’s Quality Control and Administrative teams monitor your backdrop order from your first contact with TheatreWorld all the way through return shipping and receipt by our teams. Since we are family owned and operated, most of our teams are managed by a family member of the TheatreWorld Backdrops’ ownership team. The majority of our emails to TheatreWorld clients carry not only our email address, but our personal phone numbers as well and yes, we do answer on the weekends.
We receive communications from you, our customers, on a regular basis thanking us for our levels of cooperation, time spent assisting them, and the quality of our backdrops. Some of which are posted on the site. Please visit our Customer Testimonials page to hear directly from professionals that we work with regularly.
Please understand, making the manifestation of your production better, easier to accomplish with dynamic, vibrant and colorful imagery, and assisting you wherever possible are exactly why we do, what we do and we appreciate all of you and your confidence in TheatreWorld Backdrops.