Stage Moves

USING THE STAGE

FINDON VILLAGE HALL

Something that has been known to confuse beginners - and, sometimes, old hands as well! - is what the stage directions being issued to them actually mean. "Entrance just up from the half tabs to downstage left", for example, isn't the most obvious of instructions without a little foreknowledge (on the diagram above, that would be coming on from the wings about where it says "RIGHT SIDE" and walking to where it says "MAIN CURTAIN").

It is quite straightforward once it has been made clear that all directions are taken from the point of view of standing on stage, facing the audience - the actor's view, not the director/producer's view. From this point, left and right are the actor's left and right, up and down follow the rake (the slope down towards the audience) of the stage and pretty much everything else is defined from where the curtains are. In a larger theatre, there are likely to be all sorts of other landmarks - a centre back entrance, for example, or solid walls separating parts of the wings from the rest of the offstage - but what we have are curtains, so they have to do.

The visible space upstage of the apron may be referred to as the proscenium - something which is occasionally seen in scripts, usually for older plays. In certain styles of theatre there is a formal arch (not surprisingly named the proscenium arch) separating  the apron and stage along the line of the main curtain and through which the audience view the play. Technically, the Hall is an "end-on" theatre because the window through which the audience view is rectangular rather than arched.

Again, some scripts may mention use of, or moves around, the footlights. These would be located along the front of the apron and angled upwards to complement the overhead lighting.

As far as using the space is concerned, the most desirable point for prominent activity is centre stage, given that it is most clearly visible to the whole audience and - usually - the most brightly lit area. That gives rise to the expression "taking centre stage" as being an actor's particular moment of glory. Upstaging, whether accidental or deliberate (not that we ever have any of the latter), is an actor moving from in front (downstage) to behind (upstage) another actor while that actor is talking to them. In order to maintain the conversation, the second actor has to keep turning to face the first, forcing them to effectively turn their back on the audience and costing them their moment of dramatic impact. It is, for obvious reasons, considered extremely bad form.

Apropos of nothing in particular, the theatre space also gives rise to the expression "in the limelight", from the 19th century design of stage lights. These consisted of an oxyhydrogen blowtorch pointing at a cylinder of lime (calcium oxide). Raising or lowering the cylinder would burn off more or less of the lime at once, hence allowing the intensity of light to be controlled.

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