[Music] okay now we move on to the third type of theater space utilize today I'll be honest with you this is one of my favorite of the theater spaces I believe that the Arena Stage offers the most creative opportunities for live theater today the arena theater is also often called theater in the round the first professional theater in the round was established in the US in 1947 there have been several that have cropped up across the United States ever since then the Arena Stage is surrounded by the audience sometimes the stage is round sometimes it's Square the basic configuration of this space as far as the Director is concerned is that the space is completely surrounded by the audience with four aisles coming up through the audience and leading to the stage in essence the stage is surrounded on four sides there is no Stage House from which the actors may make their entrances and exits the only access they have to the stage is through the aisles where is the strongest block on the Arena Stage students will often say the center block is the strongest however it's only strong for the audience member who the actor at Center Stage is facing the other audience members are looking at the actor's back a very weak position in this regard there isn't a strong block on the Arena Stage in the same way that there is for the prenium art space like the thrust space the arena space isn't trying to create a stage picture it too is creating a series of stage sculptures also like the thrust space the arena requires a lot of action there is no opportunity for an actor to stay in one place for too long without the action becoming particularly static the main staging convention for the arena space is often referred to as the clock and Ale technique of staging the stage floor rather than being charted with nine arbitrary blocks in the way that the prenium arch is is considered as a clock the outer locations on the stage are referred to by such terms as the 9:00 position the 3:00 position and so forth actors move on the stage either in clockwise or counterclockwise directions the aisles are very important in the arena theater the open aisle position that we refer to when we learned about the thrust bace is very important in the Arena Stage and since there are four open aisle positions it is common that we find the actors on The Arena Stage standing at the outside of the stage space facing inward with their backs to one of the four AES the center stage of the Arena space is an important traffic area of the Arena Stage the actors are either making a curved movement at the periphery of the stage called a swing out move or will move from one aisle to another by curving their move in toward Center and then to a different aisle creating a swing in move when two actors are sharing the stage on an arena space they can't create an imaginary triangle on the floor like the actors of a prenium AR space do this would have the effect of the actors standing at center stage with their back to half the audience the actors on The Arena Stage move their feet in a position referred to as twist the pairs they turn so that one actor is facing one side of the audience and the other actor is facing the other half so that even if the audience is looking at the back of one actor they are still looking at the front of the other actor this creates a staging effect that is known as the over the shoulder look the over the shoulder look is a familiar composition created in film and television there is a real challenge when it comes to designing a set for the Arena Stage since there is no conventional way to create a Scenic wall on the Arena Stage without hindering the sight lines of a large part of the audience the set designer needs to creatively suggest the wall doorway or Windows in this setting he will need to create this Illusion by placing low furniture such as backless benches at the edges of the Arena the chandelier is an effective set element on any stage but works particularly well on the Arena Stage you will find a set designer for the Arena Stage will be doing a lot of hanging of scenery in order to create the right atmosphere without hindering sight lines now the biggest advantage of staging a play on The Arena Stage is that it brings the most members of the audience into close proximity to the action of the play and as a result tends to be the most intimate of the theater spaces while the restrictions of the space on the creation of scenery can work as a disadvantage it can also challenge a designer to come up with inventive ways to create a stage set this unique stage space can present challenges in every respect that will bring out the most creative in a theater artist so why is the arena space my own personal favorite because in my opinion I don't believe that there is a space that more appropriately presents theater's Main Art object dramatic action more effectively the prium space is still the most popular space but it presents live action the same way that film and television do behind a picture frame and frankly through the use of close-ups and tracking shots that have the ability to follow action such as Chase scenes for what seems like miles it can use the picture frame more effectively since live theater's emphasis is on the human EXP experience it seems only natural that the space that brings the most of the audience to the humans on stage will be most effective and the orientation of the actors to the audience is more like observing action as we do in real life in my book these things make the Arena Stage superior to the others of course not everyone agrees with me well that's all for theater space it's time now to complete your task for this section we'll see you next time [Music]