Stagecraft Class 2

1. CLASS 2
STAGECRAFT

2. PARTS OF A STAGE
Take attendance
Upstage (the back)
Downstage (the front)
Upstage got it's name
because stages used to be
"raked" meaning that they
were on angled upwards
So when a character walked
to the back it was called
"upstaging". That's how the
term came about.

3. COMPANY TREE
.

4. PARTS OF A STAGE
Proscenium Theatre = front
view
Thrust Theatre = the thrust
extends past the proscenium.
Audience surrounds 3 sides.
Arena Theatre = audience
surrounds the stage on all sides
Flexible Stage = Black Box
Theatre
Experimental Spaces =
technically, anything can be a
stage. Use your imagination.

5. PARTS OF A STAGE
Proscenium Line = The
imaginary line that shows the
opening of the stage from one
side to the other
Not included in this diagram
are the wings.
When there are wings on
either side of the stage then
be careful of Sightlines = the
line of sight from an
audience's seat to the stage
FOH = front of house

6. PARTS OF A STAGE
Sometimes you might see
diagrams like this.
UR = upstage right
DRC = downstage right center
LC = left center
Stage Right = right from actor
Stage Left = left from actor
House Left = left from audience
House Right = right from audience

7. PARTS OF A STAGE
The theatre can be divided
into 2 parts:
Stage = in diagrams the
stage is usually at the top
Auditorium = AKA the House

8. PARTS OF A STAGE
The #'s for lines and electrics
start at proscenium and count
outward
EXAMPLE:
Electric 1 (AKA LX-1 or ELEC-1)
Electric 2 (AKA LX-2 ELEC-2)
FOH 1
FOH 2
The numbers for the FOH lights
follow the same pattern but in
the opposite direction. Think of
the proscenium line as a "zero".

9. LIGHTS AND FOCUS POINTS
Focus points tell the designer
where they want the light to hit
Focus points are designated as
A-B-C-D etc.
They count from stage right to
stage left, and from downstage
to upstage because it's based
off the director's perspective,
not the audience's.

10. LIGHTS AND FOCUS POINTS
Focus points tell the designer
where they want the light to hit
Focus points are designated as
A-B-C-D etc.
They count from stage right to
stage left, and from downstage
to upstage because it's based
off the director's perspective,
not the audience's.

11. TYPES OF LIGHTS
2 main lighting styles:
Floodlights = AKA wash lights
Uncontrollable (it's a blanket that
completely covers the stage)
Spotlights = Controllable, very specific
Fresnel = a wash light. Can be
focused, gel'd, dimmed
Profile = has a slide-out hood for
gobos or shutters (AKA barn doors). Is
a spotlight, very controllable. AKA
ellipsoidals or lekos.
Parcan = Spot
Scoops = AKA work lights in DFT

12. SCOOPS
Scoop lights can be very
affordable (Home Depot sells
them for a few dollars) or very
expensive up to thousands of
dollars.

13. Lights have channels and
circuits
Channels are what you see,
whereas circuits are what the
computer sees
On some lighting boards,
channels and circuits are "1
to 1" where channel 47 is
circuit 47
But some lighting boards
require 16 channels per light.

14. Each channel consists of a different
parameter (red, green, blue, gobo,
intensity, rotation, strobe, etc). So
that's why light fixtures (or
instruments or lanterns) are plotted as:
1 1-16
2 17-32
3 33-48
4 49-64
5 65-80
6 81-96
7 97-112
8 113-128
9 129-144
10 145-160
11 161-176
12 177-192