Go Back…
Theatre Spaces, part 2
Proscenium theatres, also known as picture frame stages, developedduring the Italian Renaissance. The audience experiences the theatrical eventby looking through the "picture frame" of the proscenium arch. 
All audience members are seated on one side of the arch, like in a movietheatre, and all actors and scenic spectacle are framed within the arch orjust in front of it. The proscenium theatre's primary advantage is that ithides or "masks" the actors and scenery used for other scenes and the machineryneeded for scenic spectacles. Areas above, below, and to the sides of thestage are hidden from the audience's view by the frame of the proscenium.
The area of the stage floor in front of the proscenium is called the apron. Descriptions of regions of the stage are given from the perspectiveof an actor facing the audience: thus stage right means in the directionof the actor's right, but the audience's left. Upstage and downstage areterms that date from the Renaissance, when the stage floor was built on arake, or slope, to aid audience sight-lines and the illusion of perspectivepainted on the scenery. The back of the stage was higher than the front inthese old theatres, and we still refer to stage areas farther from the audienceas "upstage".
Most theatres have traps, or areas of the stage floor which canbe removed for lowering and raising actors and scenery through the stagefloor. In some theatres, the apron lowers to form an orchestra pit used inmusical comedies. To each side of the stage, hidden from the audience bythe proscenium, are the wings, where scenery is stored, lights areplaced, and actors await entrances. Above the stage is usually a fly loft, where more lights are placed and where scenery, such as painted backdrops,can be suspended and then lowered to the stage floor or raised out of thesight of the audience.
Some of the basic scenic and lighting elements placed above in the fly loft,off-stage in the wings, or in the stage traps are flats, drops, platforms,wagons, trees, and battens. Flats are usually made of canvas stretchedover a wooden frame, and are painted to look like interior or exterior walls,trees, or other relatively flat objects. 
Drops are large pieces of fabric suspended from pipes and usually paintedto resemble a landscape, building interior, or other location. A scrim anda cyclorama are each similar to drops in that they are large, suspended piecesof fabric, but each has a special property. A scrim is made of looselywoven fabric, which, when lit from the front appears opaque but when litfrom the back appears translucent or transparent. A cyclorama is usedin conjunction with lighting instruments; since it is white, any color lightcan be projected onto it to change the color and pattern of the scenic background.Platforms are usually constructed of wood and placed at various heights;they may represent the second floor of a house, a higher deck of a ship,or simply a different place from the scene on the stage floor but that theaudience needs to see simultaneously. A wagon is simply a platformon wheels or in a track that can then move on the stage. Lighting instruments are typically hung above the stage, over the audience in front of the stage,and/or in the wings from the sides of the stage. Horizontally placed pipes for lighting instruments are called battens and vertically placedpipes are called trees.
A variety of curtains called teasers are commonly used to hideall of these structures from the audience's view. 
Legs are long black curtains in the wings that hide objects in the wings.Borders are hung from pipes in the fly loft to mask objects hung above.A combination of two legs, a border and the stage floor echo the shape ofthe proscenium arch. Theatres typically have three sets of teasers betweenthe proscenium arch and the upstage wall. Actors and scenery can thus enterin any of four gaps on either side of the stage. These gaps are numberedfrom down to upstage; for example an actor entering the stage from right-one would enter from stage right between the proscenium arch and first leg.The large curtain that is often down as the audience enters is called themain drape; in some theatres it is highly elaborate, with paintedor woven images.
The audience's area of the theatre is called the house. In thisspace, directions are given from the audience's perspective when facing thestage; thus house right means to a seated audience member's right. In theUnited States, the lowest area of audience seating is called the orchestra, and orchestra seats are normally the most expensive. 
Larger theatres usually also have at least one balcony, and many oldertheatres will have boxes along the sides the theatre on the balconylevel(s).
Continue…
Back to Blood's Course Materialhome page
