Intermission: All About the Theater: 3/18/24
Alex H -
One of my fellow seniors asked a question in a recent blog post comment that gave me the inspiration to write this post. He asked what the differences were between Places! Productions and the theater at BASIS. Before going into comparison, I would like to let you know about the basics of a theater as explained in this handy diagram below.
- Wings– The sides of the stage where actors and set pieces wait to come on from backstage
- Stage– Pretty self-explanatory. Stage right is audience left; stage left is audience right. Downstage is towards the audience, upstage is far away
- House- Just another term for the audience.
- Flies– Lights and set pieces that hang on the ceiling and are brought down as the play necessitates. See this picture of Places’s past production of Mary Poppins to see it in action.
- Tech booth– Where lights and sound are controlled
As far as differences between the two theaters are concerned, they are pretty obvious. From a cursory examination, you can see that the theater is inside, has actual seats as opposed to cafeteria tables, the tech booth being at the back of the theater as opposed to being in the wings (some theaters have their tech booths above the audience or tucked in a corner depending on their set up). Although, both stages have neither orchestra pits nor trapdoors, they each have a vital performance space. I really enjoy working in this kind of theater because it reminds me of my days at my old school doing music concerts at various high school auditoriums. I hope you all have a productive week.
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