If your event or performance is focused around the celebration of a holiday like Christmas, Halloween, the Fourth of July or Easter, you can hang a backdrop that provides a visual connection to these festive events. If you create your own seasonal drop, consider a painted image of a field of Christmas trees, a spooky haunted house landscape, a montage of American flags or a brightly sunlit Cross. Design themed backdrops that relate to the subject of your play or event, such as a montage of famous landmarks relating to travel or a backdrop of your company or organization's logo for a convention or meeting.
For a theatrical performance, use backdrops that depict an outdoor scene such as a cityscape or farm landscape to provide the connection between the story's location and the actors' costumes and dialog. Evoke a play's foreign or historical location with a backdrop of that time and place. For plays set in Ancient Greece, use a backdrop of the Acropolis or a street scene from ancient Athens. A backdrop of a starry night sky or a Tahitian sunset over the ocean might lend a festive touch to a high school prom or a wedding.
To locate the scene of a play in a specific interior, renting a backdrop of a simple family kitchen or a fancy hotel room might be a cheaper, simpler option than building and decorating a stage set. Backdrops instantly transport a space to a medieval castle, a posh penthouse apartment or the palace of Versailles. With the addition of painted images of people to this backdrop, the indoor scene of a party or crowded lecture hall appears more populated. Indoor scenes also transform the space into a fantastical location such as Santa's workshop or the Seven Dwarfs' house.
If you are looking to inspire a sense of atmosphere rather than depict a specific location or holiday event, consider a more abstract backdrop. Heighten an event or performance with the theme of magic by hanging a backdrop of swirling shapes or colors. If your play or event is focused on the subject of mathematics, numbers, geometric shapes and angular blocks of color could suggest your subject matter. For weddings or proms that have a specific color palette, use a backdrop that offers an abstract depiction of one or more of the chosen colors.