The Shapes of Our Theatres
THEATRE: At its most basic level: * A space where a performance takes place. + A place for the performers + A place for an audience. It is a performer standing in the middle of a crowd watching him or her perform. A more realistic description: * a large machine in the form of a building specialized for presenting performances. * Actual shape and form of machine can vary widely, but may be broken down into generic types. Arena Stage * Oldest, most original probably the Arena stage. Features: --Little scenery practical. Setting created primarily by props, sometimes low unit, type settings. --Actors enter and exit stage via aisles between the seats or vomitoria. Thrust stages Oldest recognized theatres, as building dedicated primarily to presenting plays. --Built by the Greeks to honor Dionisius. --A stage surrounded by the audience in three sides. Fourth side becomes the background. Used by: Greeks Romans (adopted it from the Greeks) Ancient Indians (developed independantly) Globe Theatre of Shakespeare Many modern theatres. Features: scenery as background. --Cannot intrude into playing space without obscurring sightlines. --Actors can enter from immediate offstage rather than wending through the crowd. The next form to appear: End Stage. Occurred when thrust stage was brought into courtyard. Features: --A thrust stage extended wall to wall; audience limited to one side. --Backstage is still behind background wall; no real wingspace to sides, although there may be entrances there. --Like the thrust, scenery is primarily background. The modern end stage best shown in modern music hall; background surrounds playing space on three sides. The Procenium stage --Invention of the Italian Rennaisance. Occurred when a picture frame placed around front of playing area of an end stage. This frame is the Proscenium. Features: * Wing space on sides of the stage, extending off-stage space to three sides of the acting area. * Scenery surrounds acting area on all sides except side towards the audience, who watch through the frame. --Allows almost literal recreation of the scene on the stage. --On minus side, audience firmly separated from the action. The Fred is a proscenium theatre. The Flexible theatre. A conscious attempt to go back to the original types to recapture the intimacy. Often referred to as a "Black Box" theatre, often big empty boxes painted black inside. The stage and seating are not fixed. The shape of each can be altered to suit. Experimentation with presentation possible and even encouraged. On the minus side, a black box does not allow the extensive scenery support. Profile Theatres Most often used as "found space" theatre, i.e. theatres converted from other spaces. Features: * Audience sits on risers to either side with little or no audience on either end. * Actors are staged in profile to the audience. * Scenically most like an arena stage, although some thrust type backing is possible at ends. A non-theatrical form: a typical basketball arena. Parts of a Proscenium Theatre: The proscenium is the defining element of the proscenium theatre, and basically a big picture frame dividing the acting space from the audience space. All directions in theatre are defined according to this division by the proscenium. Let us first look at a floor plan for a proscenium theatre: Stage directions: L,C,R,US, DS etc., Plaster and center lines _______________________________________ US UR UC UL + SR CR CC CL SL + DR DC DL _______ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ________ Proscenium ______| + PL |_______ CL \ + / \ DS / \______________________________________/ FOH Anti-proscenium Procenium, FOH, wings, scene house, fly loft, apron, traps and traproom: ___________________________________________ | Crossover | _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ | | | | | | | | | | SR Wing | Onstage | SL Wing | | | | | (Traps) | | Rail | | | |_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _| | _______ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _________ Proscenium ______| PL |_______ _____________________Apron_______________________ \ / \ Orchestra Pit / \___________________________________________/ Lock rail, fly rail, loading rail, grid _________ Penthouse _________|_______|___________ | Grid | |_ _o_o_o_o_o_o_o_o_o_o_o_o_| |______Loading rail_________| | || | Loft || Beams | or Fire || __________ _________ _____ | Stage Curtain || / | | House || / | | Cove |___ | ||__/ | Box | | | | | ________Fly rail___________ | Boom |_| Booth| | | Auditorium |___| | or | | House |___| | ___/ | _________Rail____________ Apron ____/ |_________Stage______________________ ____/ | _____/ Trap Room | Pit| |_____| Ancillary areas: scene and prop shops, storage, light storage and maintainance, costume shop and storage, dressing rooms, green room, lobby & box office, publicity, administration. Thrust, Arena, and Profile Stages: directions in the alternate theatre forms a little more problematic: audience isn't in any one direction, but may be on two, three or four sides. Common in thrust theatres to assign middle section of three sided audience as "downstage". Care must be taken by director and designers as the sides are also "downstage" for the audience sitting there. In arena, all directions are "downstage"; other convention must be adopted. Commonly used schemes: -Assign directions according to compass directions (north, south,east, west) -Assign according to the "clock" (12:00, 3:00, 6:00, 9:00) with 12:00 as assigned. -Assign names to various parts of the playing space (Ar.A, Ar.B, Ar.C, etc.) May be completely different in subsequent productions. Care must be taken to remember that anywhere audience is is "downstage" for that part of the audience; performers must avoid inadvertantly slighting part of the audience by playing primarily to an arbitrary "downstage" direction that may not even hold the majority of the audience.