Rear Screen Projection for Live Theater

[susancardillo]

I am posting here concerning bringing Projection Design to my high school students. Here are some questions I have as of now. I am a Drama and TV Productions teacher but have very little experience in Theater Tech. This will be new to me but I am excited to learn along with my students.
What I am looking to attain is large rear screen projection that can be used as set backgrounds and interactive video that the actors can perform with.

1) The projector for our theaters center screen is a Eiki Boardroom Projector LC-X71 . There are also two I currently have 3 front of house projectors, the main center one for the large smaller screens on either side of the stage that have their own projectors(they were up too high for me to get them make and model numbers) Could I utilize any of these projectors to get the rear screen effect that I am looking for?
2) I also have a cyc that flies in for lighting. It currently sits about 3 feet from the back wall, but could be moved. Would this scrim work for rear-screen projection and if so, how far would it have to be from the projector(or how far must the projector be from the screen)?
3) I would be using a MacBook Pro as my hardware, but could possibly move a Mac desktop from my studio to the theater….will either of these work?
4) And Isadora software was suggested, but if you have other suggestions please let me know
5) Also, we edit in Final Cut Pro, iMovie and Adobe Premiere….can they all be used and played through the laptop for projection?
6) And lastly…..as I am a novice, if you could suggest any books, tutorials or other that I could look into to learn more, that would be greatly appreciated.

Well….here are some of my beginning questions. If you are too busy to answer, I totally understand. Any direction you could give would be one thousand times more than I have now. I have a vision, and I just don’t have the knowledge (yet) to make it happen. I tell my students about my vision and they are very excited to work along with me to make it happen. Perhaps with your help and some guidance it just might happen.

Thanks again for taking your valuable time to read and answer my questions.

Sincerely,
Susan Cardillo