Transcript Theatre Spaces and Placenames

Introduction To Theatre Lecture
“If all the world’s a stage, then you
deserve better lighting!”
Cyclorama Floor Plan
Cyclorama Blue/Green Wash
Backdrop
Raked Stage with Backdrop
legs and headers
Rigging
The Grid
The Rail
Rail
Parts of the Stage
Proscenium Theatre
Proscenium Theatre
Thrust
Thrust Stage
Arena
Stage
Arena Theatre
Four types of theatre spaces
 Proscenium
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audience views the action from one
direction
Downey, Music Center
 Arena
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audience views the action from
four directions
Arena Stage, Washington DC
Four types of theatre spaces cont.
 Thrust
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audience views the action from
three direction
Mark Taper Forum
 Created & Found Spaces
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each audience member views the
action from a unique perspective
Proscenium Theatre Space
 Other terms:
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picture-frame, fourth wall
 Introduced in Italy during the
Renaissance
 90% of all theatres
Proscenium Theatre Space
 Advantages
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provides for spectacle
focuses audience’s
attention most acutely
heightens aesthetic
distance
 Disadvantages
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intimacy more difficult
to achieve
Arena Theatre Space
 Other terms:
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theatre-in-the-round, circle
theatre
 Oldest arrangement in history
Arena Theatre Space
 Advantages
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offers greater intimacy
heightens audience’s
sense of community
demands economy in
design and production
 Disadvantages
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Plays requiring
elaborate scenery
suffer
Thrust Stage Space
 Other terms:
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three-quarter stage
 Most widely used in history
Thrust Stage Space
 Advantages
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a compromise between
the proscenium and
arena stage
• some intimacy
• some spectacle
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Western theatre written
for this space
 Disadvantages
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a compromise between
the proscenium and
arena stage
• some intimacy
• some spectacle
Created and Found Spaces
(Flexible Theatre)
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An attempt to break down audience-actor distance.
Grew out of avant-garde experimentation.
Originated in 1927 by Gilmore Brown
Affect the audience’s experience as strongly as
dialogue or staging might.
 Non-theatre buildings, street theatre, multifocus
environments.
 Sandwich and L Shapes Staging
The Found Theatre
Acting Rules
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Never Break – Always stay in character
Acting is reacting
Acting is visual and audio
Listen to you costars as if you have never heard
them before.
Every movement must be motivated
Never make eye contact with the audience.
Follow the director he/she is in charge!!
Build your emotions within a scene you can only
get so angry and loud!!!
Know your character’s motivations
Acting Techniques
 Gesture is a hand or arm movement.
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Always use your upstage hand or arm.
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Enter the stage on your upstage foot
Always turn downstage
Kneel on your downstage knee
The audience will follow your eyes so stay
focused in the direction you want the audience to
look.
 Open up for the audience – ¾
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Open – To turn towards the audience
Close – Turn away from the audience
Bad Actor – Shame!!
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Upstaging
Cover
Pick up Cues – too slow!!
Over-riding
Too much back and butt!
Bad diction and projection
Slow Timing
Almost Done
 Protagonist
 Antagonist
 Technique
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Forever
 Method Acting
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Stanislavski Moscow Arts Theatre 1800’s
When the actor doesn’t know their lines
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Missed Cues
Ad-lib
Improvisation
Timing
Over-Riding
Three Elements in Collaboration
Performer
Text
Audience
Theatre and Other Art Forms
1. Focus on the human experience.
2. “Perpetual Present”
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Thornton Wilder
4. “Willing suspension of disbelief”
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Samuel Coleridge
5. Immediacy of theatre
6. Collaboration
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between the performer and the audience
between the designers, directors, performers,
technicians
Theatre is Didactic – It teaches lessons
Basic elements
of theatre?
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Story
Actors
Audience
Critics and Scholars
Director
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Producer
Theatre Space
Designers
Technicians
Managers
Jobs in the Theatre
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Director
Designers – Lights – Sound – Scenery - Choreography
Stage Manager
Technical Director
Artistic Director
House Manager
Theatre Manager
Prop Crew
Lighting Technician
Box Office Staff
Concessions Staff
Actors
Singers
Dancers
Marketing Staff - Publicity
Shop Carpenters, Electricians, Machinists
Agents Managers
Public Relations
Booking Agent
Ushers
Musicians
Conductors
Producers
Casting Directors
Accountant
Touring Manager