Stage Spaces
A. When an audience sits in an auditorium, they immediately take in the environment.
1. Theatre's architecture has an effect on mood
2. Type of theatre affects mood
a. Proscenium formal, serious
b. Black box informal, creative
3. Environment taken for granted for many years with carbon copy Broadway theatres
4. Many modern designers find ways of altering theatre's architecture to create atmosphere
B. Types of spaces
1. Proscenium
a. First introduced in Italian Renaissance
b. Originally an arch
c. Until 60s had curtain
d. Called "Picture Frame" stage
e. Also called "Fourth Wall"
2. Arena
a. Developed after WWII
b. More relaxed; less formal
c. Acting more realistic
d. More intimate
e. Audience communes in circle arrangement
I. Format used in all civilizations through history
II. May have been precursor to Greek theatre
f. Still some problems due to nature of space
I. Several have closed since '70s
3. Thrust
a. Between proscenium and arena
b. Originated in Greek theatre
c. Pageant wagons fit this style
d. Elizabethan Courtyard theatres and Octagon later
e. Spanish Corrales
4. Black Box
IDENTIFY OR DEFINE
1. Proscenium
2. Fourth wall
3. House, or front of house
4. Rake
5. Orchestra
6. Boxes
7. Fly loft
8. Counterweight system
9. Wings
10. Arena stage, circle theater, or theater-in-the-round
11. Thrust stage
12. Stage house
13. Skene
14. Platform stage, or trestle stage
15. Wagon stage (pageant wagon)
16. Corrales
17. Found space
18. Street theater
19. Neighborhood theater
20. Guerilla theater
21. Multifocus environments
22. Multimedia theater
23. "Black box"