welcome back we've taken a look at the four spaces that make up a traditional theater facility now let's take a look at the performance space itself and learn how the physical arrangement of the performance space will dictate the staging techniques used in this section we will take a look at what is perhaps the most commonly used performance base in the theater today the proscenium arch theater space the proscenium space gets its name from the architectural element that is most commonly visible in most traditional theaters the proscenium arch was popularized during the Italian Renaissance it is the picture frame structure that typically surrounds the action of the play the Italians made the proscenium arch a fixture in their theater in order to create a picture frame to accommodate perspective scenery which was a popular form of set design at the time utilizing a vanishing point in order to create the illusion of depth on painted drops the goal of creating the illusion of depth remains intact today not only for scenic painting but for the staging technique that is used on the proscenium arch stage before we consider the main staging technique for the proscenium arch let's take a look at the physical relationship between the stage and the house in this space in the proscenium arch space the house and stage are situated on opposite ends of each other this arrangement enhances the ability of the stage to create the illusion of depth that the Italian sought in the earliest proscenium arch spaces this brings us to the ruling convention of staging for the proscenium arch space that is the convention often refer to as picturization a director staging his play on the proscenium arch stage is attempting to create a series of stage pictures in order to better convey the dramatic action that is occurring on the stage he does this by a technique known as blocking blocking is the process of arranging the actors on a set in a way that will create visual interest and dramatic tension blocking also involved the general movement of the actors on the stage on the proscenium arch stage the director considers the stage floor as a series of blocks this ground plan is a top view of the proscenium arch space in order to create the illusion of depth on this stage the director considers the upstage area or the area at the back of the stage furthest away from the audience this area serves as the background of the picture ization that the director will be constructing he also considers the downstage space or the area that will serve as the foreground of the stage picture the central part of the stage serves as the middle ground of the stage picture these blocks are further divided into stage right center stage and stage left in the theater right and left are always referenced from the point of view of the actor facing the audience so a director facing the stage must reorient his thinking in order to effectively direct the actors from the house these divisions divide the stage into nine arbitrary areas of different stage strength all things being equal the down center block or the block closest to the audience in the middle of the stage is considered the strongest block on the stage if the director wants to give an actor on stage a particular focus he will have the actor move into that down center block the down right block is often considered the next strongest block this is due to the tendency of our eye to move from left to right on a composition the fact that our eye tends to rest at the center of any composition explains why the down center block is the strongest block after the down right block the down left block is considered to be the next strongest block and this pattern continues to the center stage block stage right block stage left block and on to the up center block the upright block and then to the up left block now there are many other considerations to take into account when we consider the strength of a block on the proscenium arch stage we will investigate many of these when we cover the art of stage director within these blocks the stage director for the proscenium arch stage will use what is referred to as the proscenium triangle arrangement the triangle arrangement between actors on this stage works well in creating the illusion of depth as well as drawing inferences about the relationship between the characters when two actors are standing together on the proscenium stage they will match their upstage feet and open their offstage foot in a way that will create an imaginary triangle on the stage floor this will open the actors to the audience and create the illusion that the two characters they are watching are in a shared conversation if a scenic designer has included levels on his set design the director may further exploit the proscenium triangle to create depth and height to his stage picture the advantages of the proscenium arch space include first that it is the most effective space to accommodate large audiences this is evidenced by the fact that almost all Broadway theaters are proscenium arch theaters Broadway is in the business of selling as many tickets as they can to a play production the proscenium arch space makes this possible the proscenium space is also the most common physical arrangement between the performance in the audience so the audience is used to it and most comfortable with this arrangement it is also comparable to other similar modes of entertainment such as the movies and television because it accommodates large audiences one of the disadvantages of this space is that it is not conducive to creating an intimate atmosphere as a result it can feel a little impersonal in its mode of presentation it's in this quality of intimate settings where the other two theater spaces the thrust space and the arena space shine but we'll cover that in the next two sections for now go to your tasks for this unit and answer the questions there when we come back we'll take a look at the theater space that was popularized during William Shakespeare's day and see what techniques are used to stage on this unique theatre space we'll see you next time