hi friends i'm nicola sachiani and let's go backstage [Music] today we're going to talk about different types of stages when you're working in theater you need to know exactly what type of stage you are working on and working with because they all call for different things different styles of acting different styles of directing different styles of building even so we're going to talk about six of the main different types of stages that you might come across while working in theater and then we'll talk a little bit about how those differences affect the different aspects of theater itself the standard stage in theater is the proscenium theater this is the most common the most recognized type of theater and the proscenium theater what that means is there is a frame around the stage that is at the edge of the stage there might be a little bit of stage in front of it that's called an apron but the majority of the stage is behind this nice framed out piece most high schools have some sort of proscenium theater most of broadway is a proscenium type of stage a lot of those prosceniums will be really ornate shows like peter and the starcatcher create a false proscenium that works with the show now similar to a proscenium theater is a platform stage this is basically a stage that has no proscenium it is just lifted up from the ground it is in front of the audience you might have walls coming in blocking off the wings but there's no top there is no full frame around the stage a lot of concerts have this type of theater if you are going and seeing a speaker somewhere they might be standing on top of this type of theater it's literally just a raised stage that has no proscenium no frame around it after that another very common type of theater is a thrust stage so this has audience on three sides now you can have a thrust stage that also has a proscenium so it has an audience on three different sides and then all the way upstage there's a frame and it has a backstage and wings i've worked in a couple theaters that are like this but it is still considered a thrust stage because the stage goes out into the audience and an audience is on all three sides what happens if you have an audience all the way around that is called an arena stage or theater in the round that's audience on all four sides you have hit in the middle the coliseum is an arena stage right i mean they weren't doing plays there they were having gladiator fights but it was still a performance it was still there for entertainment that's an arena stage um circle in the square theater on broadway that is an arena stage or theater and around again you can use them interchangeably generally arena has a bigger feel to it but it's still the same the audience is all the way around the stage there is no actual backstage to an arena stage so next we get to the black box stage or the flexible stage the key thing about this what makes this different than any other stage is that the audience can move around not like they can get up and move their seats in the middle of a show but the seats themselves can be moved into a different configuration this is one of the most exciting theaters for a designer to work with because you can make the stage any kind of stage you want you can put a platform in there and have a platform stage you can make it into a thrust you can make it into theater and around there are no limits really to how you can set up the audience and that very thing those seats being able to move around that's what makes a black box theater a black box theater and now we have another type of theater that could also be doubled with one of the other stages and that is an open-air theater and the thing that makes an open-air theater an open-air theater is that some part of it does not have a roof there are plenty of bandshell type theaters that have the stage and have a roof and then the audience is completely out in the open or you can have the audience covered and the stage is open to the air there's no roof over that that's similar to the globe theater where some of the audience is covered like in the riser seats the more expensive seats and then the ground is open again the coliseum that is an arena stage but it's also an open air theater but you could have a proscenium you could have just a platform stage it could be a thrust stage the thing that makes it open air is the fact that it is outside and then finally we get to site-specific theater this is theater that's not done on a stage but at a specific location so for example when i was in college there was a traveling show it took place in the hallway of an apartment building instead of building that on a stage they toured the show and where they performed it at my school they took one of the classroom hallways set up chairs in the middle of the hallway on the side of the hallways and performed it around the audience like the audience wasn't even there but we were immersed in the show in that hallway now the thing that makes that so great is that every new location is going to have a different feel to it so after they did it in our classroom hallway which had more of an industrial feel to it they were taking it to an old hotel that was a little bit more run down and had a little more of a dingy feel to it so it gives the play itself a different kind of atmosphere to play in so this can be anywhere you could do a show about doctors in an er i mean that probably wouldn't be the smartest idea because you'd have doctors and they need to actually give up the er to you and that probably not be good but you could do a show about a classroom like the history boys you could do that actually in a school in a classroom rather than doing it on the stage and it just it helps immerse the audience into it so now let's talk about why it is important to know about the different types of theaters so think about a proscenium theater the audience is in front of the actors in front of the stage so if i'm sitting and i'm talking to someone you only get half my face so you have to cheat out as an actor to give more of your face to the audience now on a thrust stage where there's audience on three sides you have to be aware of not blocking half the audience from the other actor you have to be on angles and all that so they can see most of your face but they also can see the other angle a lot of thrust shows there's constant movement because you're constantly going to be blocking somebody the same thing in theater and around you have to be aware of who can see you and who you're blocking at all times when it comes to scenic elements and the tech part of things a proscenium stage you're gonna have the front of everything facing the audience completely finished but the back why are you gonna waste materials finishing the back that no one's gonna see you won't because that's just a waste of time and a waste of money now if you're on a thrust stage and that piece comes out you have to do four sides because all the sides are going to be seen and the same thing with theater in a round you have to finish more sides because more people can see more of the objects more of the set and then if you're working in a black box theater generally those theaters are smaller they have smaller houses the audience is much closer to the stage so you have to be a little bit more finished in your final product there's a general rule in theater that things are faked to a certain extent because the closest person seeing the stage the closest audience member is 30 feet away now in a black box where the audience is pretty much right on stage or in a site specific theater where you're building something for that show and the audience is right on top of the stage now instead of being 30 feet away that person is closer to being 5 feet or 10 feet away so they can see more of the detail so you have to be more detailed in the set and then if you're doing stuff outside you have to be aware of the elements it might rain on that set it may get sun damage there's a lot of things that could happen to it and you have to be using the proper materials for an exterior when normally in these other type of theaters we're inside so we don't have to worry about finishing things so that they can withstand the elements so that in a nutshell six of the main type of theaters that you will see working in theater now there's other types of theaters i'm sure that i missed that i didn't say but these are the most common that you will see and you will work in and just a few reasons why it's important to know about the different type of theaters and know their differences going into a show because it affects from front to back everyone who is working on that show so that's all for today i hope you learned something and i hope you enjoyed i will see you next time bye friends these videos are made for educational purposes hopefully you learned something or reinforced something you may already know now this is just one way to do this and there may be other ways to do what i've explained in this video and i would love to hear about those ways in the comments just remember to be kind as you share your own experiences and expertise on the subject and if you like this video give me a thumbs up like and subscribe and hit that little bell button to be notified of the next video