The document discusses different types of performance spaces that can be used for theatre, including proscenium, thrust, arena, flexible black box, found, and site-specific spaces. It also outlines different categories of theatre based on their commercial nature, size, and professionalism, such as Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional, educational, community, and amateur theatre.

1. Where can we Perform?
A place for everything…

2. Do we need a theatre
in order to do
theatre?

3. Stage Directions
• We talk about the locations on stage from the actor’s
point of view when they’re standing on the stage facing
the audience. The actor’s right hand is stage right, etc.
If the actor turns around and faces away from the
audience, we don’t change the terminology.
• The part of the stage that is farthest from the audience
is referred to as upstage, while the closest is
downstage. This comes from a time when the stages
were “raked,” which means they were built like a giant
ramp that slanted uphill away from the audience. So if
they walked away from the audience, they were
literally going UP stage.

4. Stage Directions
Upstage Right Upstage Center Upstage Left
Stage Right Center Stage Stage Left
Downstage
Downstage Right Downstage Left
Center
Audience

5. Stage Directions
• We have directions in the audience too. We
refer to the audience as the “house,” and we
talk about those directions from the point of
view of the audience as they face the stage.
So Stage Right would be the same as House
left and vice versa.

6. St-st-st-st-stages…
There is more than one kind of stage, and each
stage affects the performance, the staging, the
acting and the audience.

7. Proscenium Stage
 Formal stage framed by a Proscenium Arch
 Invisible “fourth wall” separating the stage from the
house
 Seating is usually “raked” (slanted uphill away from the
stage, so that rows behind can see)
 Stages are sometimes “raked” as well (remember… the
stage directions)
 Multiple seating levels: orchestra (main level) and
balcony (upper level)
 Wings are the sides of the stage that are not visible to
the audience – where actors wait before they come on
stage, or where set pieces are kept when they need to
be out of sight
 Fly loft is the space directly above the stage where
scenery and lights can be hung from pipes called batons

8. Proscenium Stage

9. Proscenium Stage
Some theatres
have a pit under
the front of the
stage where the
orchestra can sit
during a musical

10. Proscenium Stage with Apron
The Apron is the
part of some
stages that
extends past the
proscenium arch

11. Proscenium Stage
The frame around the stage is
called the Proscenium Arch

12. Thrust Stage

13. Thrust Stage
• The audience sits on three sides, or in a
semicircle around a stage that thrusts out into
the audience
• The kind of theatre the Greeks used
• Offers a sense of intimacy
• Limitations due to sightlines – since the
audience is sitting on three sides, their view
can be easily blocked by set pieces or even by
actors

14. Thrust Stage

15. Thrust

16. Proscenium Thrust

17. Thrust Stage

18. Arena Stage
 Also called theatre-in-the-round
 Stage in the middle with the audience on all
sides
 Even more intimate – audience can see each
other
 Even more limitations on sightlines – there
really can’t be any large set pieces or they’ll
block everyone’s view of something

19. Arena Stage

20. Arena Stage
We still have to talk
about stage directions
on an Arena stage. You
could just decide which
direction is going to be
considered
“downstage” or
“upstage.” Or, you can
talk about it like a
clock, and decide
which direction is
going to be considered
twelve o’clock.

21. Arena Stage

22. Arena Stage

23. Flexible Spaces
• Often called “Black Box Theatres” – Large open
spaces (guess what color paint they use) that
can be configured in many different ways.
All of these photos
were taken in the same
theatre – it’s a black
box theatre that can
be rearranged into any
configuration.

24. REALLY Flexible Theatre
Watch these videos about a very high tech space
that was build in Dallas a few years ago.
Imagine the possibilities of a theatre this
flexible...
• Dallas Theatre Center
• Time Lapsed Video of the DTC

25. Found Spaces
• A theatre set up in a space not ordinarily used for
performance – so maybe you decide to perform a
play in an abandoned warehouse or a park
(without actually changing the space to turn it
into a theatre)
• Most early theatres probably began this way
• Street theatre
– Brings performances
to places where
people do not
normally attend
traditional theatre

26. Improv Everywhere
• Link 1 Speaking of found spaces,
Theatre can happen any time,
• Link 2 anywhere. Sometimes it’s totally
scripted, and sometimes it’s
improvised on the spot – though
improv will still have a plan of
some sort. Check out these two
links from a group called Improv
Everywhere. You might call what
they do a flashmob… does a
flashmob count as theatre? Look
back at our criteria and see if you
think what they’re doing counts.
Plus… just enjoy! These guys are
a lot of fun!

27. Site Specific
• Theatre performed in a place that is specific to
the show itself
– performing Marat/Sade or One Flew Over the
Cuckoo’s
Nest in an
asylum This is a picture from a production of the absurdist play
Waiting for Godot, which was adapted to deal with the
aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It was performed in
front of a washed out house in the Ninth Ward of
New Orleans.

28. Commercial Theatre
• Broadway
– Located in the Theatre District of Manhattan
– 500+ seats
– They spend big money and they charge big money for
tickets
• Off-Broadway
– Located in or near the Theatre District of Manhattan
– 100-499 seats
– More variety in terms of price, meaning they can be a
little more accessible
• Tours
– Large productions – usually originally from Broadway –
that travel from city to city

29. Not-for-Profit Theatre
• Off-Off Broadway
– Located in or near the Theatre District of Manhattan
– <100 seats
– More experimental, lower budget, opportunities for
more artists to do more kinds of theatre
• Regional Theatre
– In the 1940s, theatres began to sprout up outside of
New York, all over the country
– These are high-quality professional theaters, generally
on par with the Off-Broadway theatres, but they are
usually not-for-profit

30. Amateur Theatre
• Educational theatre
– Associated with schools from kindergarten to
university
– In the university setting, these theatres set out to
train theatre artists
• Community Theatre
– Local entertainment and performance
opportunities for community populations
– The actors are not professional actors, they are
just normal people from the community – this is
more of a hobby