Theater
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TheStageScenicDesign.pptxThe Stage: Theatre spaces and scenic design
Overview
Theatre Spaces
Review of Historical Theatre Spaces
Current: Proscenium, End Stage, Thrust Stage, Arena Stage, Black Box
Theatre Spaces
Theatre architecture influences the kinds of plays that are produced and reflects the culture that produced them.
Producers, directors and scenic designers today make choices about the space in order to enhance their production of a play.
Theatre at Epidaurus (Ancient Greece)
Gathering place for citizens and political discussion
Medieval Pageant Wagon
Mobile
Bringing theatre (and religion) to the people
Stage in Shakespeare’s time (1500s-early 1600s)
Open-Air Theatres
Groundlings stood
Few set pieces:
Verbal decor
Theatre in France, 18th C.
A place to see and be seen!
Contemporary Theatre Spaces
Proscenium Stage
Thrust Stage
Arena Theatre (Theatre in the Round)
Black Box Theatre (Flexible)
Proscenium Theatre (Arch)
So Why Choose a Proscenium?
Proscenium would be good if you want to distance the audience from what is happening. To create a “picture frame” around the piece. It creates a very detached view of the proceedings.
End Stage
Just like proscenium stage, but without proscenium arch
Fairchild Theatre
Thrust Stage
Audience on three sides
So Why Choose THRUST?
It thrusts the action into the audience to involve them but still maintains a small bit of the proscenium feel. There is still some separation between the performance and the audience members.
It can allow the audience to interact with themselves, which can enhance the effect of certain events.
Pasant Theatre (seats 600)
Arena Stage
Audience surrounds action
Arena
So Why Choose Arena?
ARENA is great when you want the audience to be fully immersed in the proceedings. You want them to feel everything and really relate with the characters. It eliminates the “4th wall” concept.
Black Box Theatre: Flexible
Studio 60
So why use Flexible Spaces?
Allows you to alter the performance space to suit any thematic need you want.
This allows you the most thematic variety in a season of shows
Theatre Spaces at MSU
In Auditorium Building:
Fairchild Theatre
Studio 60
Arena Theatre (Twelfth Night)
Summer Circle Courtyard
At Wharton Center:
Pasant Theatre (Dr. Fox & Frankenstein)
Cobb Great Hall
Cobb Great Hall (seats 2420)
Summer Circle Courtyard
Stage Directions
Upstage
Downstage
Center Stage
Stage Left
Stage Right
Up Left
Up Right
Down Right
Left Center
Right Center
Fun Fact! Raked Stage
Sometimes built on top of existing flat stages.
This is where the terms upstage and downstage came from.
Also comes from 16th Century Italian theatre
A stage that has an incline leading away from the audience so that actors further away from the audience are easier to see.
This creates a situation where an actor upstage is literally above an actor downstage.
Scenic Design
Concept
Mood
Historical Period
Locale
Socioeconomic Level
Seasons/Weather
Concept
Concept is the way that the production staff decides the play should be presented.
Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
Pippin - Stephen Schwartz, Roger Hirson
Mood
Mood refers to the dominant emotional quality of the production
The Crucible – Arthur Miller
Hairspray – Marc Shaiman
Historical Period
This refers to the time in history during which the events of the play take place.
Cyrano de Bergerac - Edmond Rostand
Superior Donuts - Tracy Letts
Locale
The location where the action of the play takes place
A Tuna Christmas – Ed Howard, Joe Sears, Jaston Williams
The King and I – Rogers and Hammerstein
Socioeconomic Level
Socioeconomic Level refers to the general income level of the character or characters in the play.
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde
Season/Weather
The season of the year that the play takes places.
Almost, Maine – John Cariani
The Cherry Orchard – Anton Chekhov
Character Personality
The key personality traits of the character that inhabits a particular setting
Legally Blonde – Heather Hach
Red – John Logan
