UK Theatre Network

Theatre Set-Up

A structure that is used for play performances and other like presentations is referred to as a theatre.  A theatre would include a stage and an auditorium.  The stage is the performing area while the auditorium serves as the viewing place for the audience.  A typical 20^th century theatre completely separates the stage from the audience with the use of the proscenium arch while the 16^th and 17^th century playhouses that were popular in England during the time have stages that extend into the auditorium.  Variations in stage designs may be the result of the need for the maximum use of scenery or non at all.  In essence, stage design is influenced by several factors such as the type of play to be performed and the kind of audience for whom the theatre is intended, among others.

Theatre layouts have come a long way from its early beginnings consisting of primitive open-air arrangements with temporary structures that functioned as stages.  Modern theatres are multiple-use theatres that are both flexible and eclectic in design with numerous style elements incorporated in them.  Those that dare to break the norm of having an architectural structure used as a theatre create their own theatres in empty spaces such as the streets, market squares and buildings or rooms that were not originally intended for theatre use.

The development of the physical form of a theatre produced at least three (3) distinctive types of stages namely the end, thrust and arena.  An end stage would consist of a raised platform typically placed at one end of a space that is rectangular.  The stage would have a curtained backdrop with an awning and faces an assembled audience.  The most dominant form of this stage variant in western theatre is the proscenium theatre.  The proscenium was primarily developed for the need to mask scenery, create exits and entrances for performers and to hide machineries used for changing scenes.

Another stage variant is the thrust stage wherein the platform is arranged in such a way that it is surrounded on three (3) sides by the audience.  This set-up provides for the creation of a sense of greater intimacy between the performers and the audience while maintaining the production capability to have illusionistic effects as required by the show.  This was the form used by ancient Greek theatres and other theatres of the early periods.

The arena stage provides for a performing space that is entirely surrounded by the audience.  This form is not quite popular for dramatic plays due to the specific constraints it presents in the movements of performers and the production crew.  It can still however, be successfully used for dramatic plays since no other stage forms can provide the most sense of intimacy with the audience.  It is typically used in non-dramatic forms such as circuses where the provision of equal sight lines for all viewers is very important.

Some other stage forms would include the so-called environmental theatre where the space is shared by the performers with their audience and the black-box theatre which is basically an empty space that has seating units that are movable and stage platforms which can be freely arranged in the desired configuration for every performance.  The passing of time saw the different variations in style because of the dramatic conventions prevailing during a certain period.  More variations in theatre set-up are expected as the world of theatre bid for the audience’s continued patronage.