Why is downstage downstage?
Ever wondered? Well way back in the day theatres used to have flat floors and flat stages. This worked great for the fellas in the first three rows, but beyond that things got a little fuzzy, it was hard to see what was what!
Nobody really knows who was the first to come up with the idea but most of the books I've read blame it on the Italians. See in the Italian theatre the directors were actually scenic painters and they didn't like the idea of people not being able to see their elaborate scenery (my interpretation) so they built what's called a raked stage.
This was a platform that was slightly slanted up from front to back. So an actor moving away from the audience was moving slightly uphill and conversely the closer to the audience you got the further downhill you would be. After awhile architects realized that if they raised the seating on a slope or stairs everyone could see and the actors wouldn't have to work so hard to stand up!
Nowadays raked stages can be seen whenever a theatre company needs to do something original. Most stages are flat but the tradition remains! So an actor moving toward the audience goes downstage, if he moves away, he goes up!
Now on to other confusions. Right and left are relative it seems and in the theatre stage right is located to the actors right as he stands facing his audience, stage left is on the left.
I usually work with a nine section stage direction grid as pictured above. There are three ranks (columns from front to back) and three rows. The intersection of these ranks and rows gives us a grid that makes blocking much simpler, kind of like a road map.
The ranks are Stage Left, Center Stage, and Stage Right. The Rows are downstage, center stage, and upstage. The abbreviations on the diagram above can be used to mark blocking notation such as: Paul enters SL,X to DC (the x stands for a cross)
Here are some other fairly common abbreviations you might find useful:
DS = Downstage
US = Upstage
SR = Stage Right
CS = Centre stage
SL = Stage Left
RC = Right of centre stage
LC = Left of centre stage
DR = Down right
DL = Down left
UR = Up right
UL = Up left
UC = Up centre
DC = Down centre
C/L = Centre line
X = Cross
Two more pieces of the above diagram require some explanation. An apron is the edge of any stage platform, it is also the part of a stage in front of the curtain. In musical theatre it is common for small scenes to be played as "crossovers" in front of the curtain, on the apron, while scene changes are made behind it.
The areas out of sight of the audience to either side of the stage are called wings. These areas, contrary to popular belief, are not spectator galleries for actors. They are primarily the property of the stage hands, and while actors enter and exit through them, they mostly get used as staging areas for scene changes.
Ever wondered? Well way back in the day theatres used to have flat floors and flat stages. This worked great for the fellas in the first three rows, but beyond that things got a little fuzzy, it was hard to see what was what!
Nobody really knows who was the first to come up with the idea but most of the books I've read blame it on the Italians. See in the Italian theatre the directors were actually scenic painters and they didn't like the idea of people not being able to see their elaborate scenery (my interpretation) so they built what's called a raked stage.
This was a platform that was slightly slanted up from front to back. So an actor moving away from the audience was moving slightly uphill and conversely the closer to the audience you got the further downhill you would be. After awhile architects realized that if they raised the seating on a slope or stairs everyone could see and the actors wouldn't have to work so hard to stand up!
Nowadays raked stages can be seen whenever a theatre company needs to do something original. Most stages are flat but the tradition remains! So an actor moving toward the audience goes downstage, if he moves away, he goes up!
Now on to other confusions. Right and left are relative it seems and in the theatre stage right is located to the actors right as he stands facing his audience, stage left is on the left.
I usually work with a nine section stage direction grid as pictured above. There are three ranks (columns from front to back) and three rows. The intersection of these ranks and rows gives us a grid that makes blocking much simpler, kind of like a road map.
The ranks are Stage Left, Center Stage, and Stage Right. The Rows are downstage, center stage, and upstage. The abbreviations on the diagram above can be used to mark blocking notation such as: Paul enters SL,X to DC (the x stands for a cross)
Here are some other fairly common abbreviations you might find useful:
DS = Downstage
US = Upstage
SR = Stage Right
CS = Centre stage
SL = Stage Left
RC = Right of centre stage
LC = Left of centre stage
DR = Down right
DL = Down left
UR = Up right
UL = Up left
UC = Up centre
DC = Down centre
C/L = Centre line
X = Cross
Two more pieces of the above diagram require some explanation. An apron is the edge of any stage platform, it is also the part of a stage in front of the curtain. In musical theatre it is common for small scenes to be played as "crossovers" in front of the curtain, on the apron, while scene changes are made behind it.
The areas out of sight of the audience to either side of the stage are called wings. These areas, contrary to popular belief, are not spectator galleries for actors. They are primarily the property of the stage hands, and while actors enter and exit through them, they mostly get used as staging areas for scene changes.
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