All the world's a stage!

Thought it was about time I posted another blog give some opportunities for more discussion on some theatre related bits and bobs. So this blog is going to be all about stages...as in the ones you perform on. Just wanted to test the waters on who likes what stage! As many will know 'the whole world is a stage' and more recently I have discovered how true this statement is. With modern theatre a play can be staged anywhere, a rented stage, a community hall, in a park, on the back of a truck, an abandonned warehouse or any other place that one finds fit to hold a show. The world of the 'stage' seems to be becomming an even more important tool in play making than ever. Now not only do we consider the costume, the lighting and the set but we also consider the 'environment' and I'm beginning to think that's what a stage truly is, an environment. The 'traditional' stage or proscenium is something as performers we've all encountered. It's a stage with audience out the front. Quite often this is the kind of stage where Musicals are held and as such these shows are made for this stage. It's not particularly a stage that involves the audience- where the 4th wall theory comes into play. This is a great kind of stage for classic plays or musicals if you are immersed in the world that is going on 'on stage' and you want your audience to be like onlookers to the event. A Thrust Stage gets your actors out into the audience, it creates new dimensions, different angles you have to act to, a whole new area to act on, audience on different sides not just flat out in front of you. So pleasing the audience is a biggy on this section. But you can begin to include the audience with this kind of stage, make them feel part of the world. In our school's performance of 'Annie Jnr' we had NYC citizens wandering in the audience making the audience feel part of the NYC scene and then out onto the thrust part of the stage which immediately included the audience into the world of the stage. Of course you can perform in venues where the plain old floor is the stage...a black box theatre for instance. Just a plain, black room with some seating...endless possibilities and with the audience on the 'same level as you' you can expect them to be completely immersed in the show. Recently we performed Boy Banned in a 'drama room' (not black box because it wasn't black) but it's stage was a diamond shape as the audience seating is against two of the four walls. It was an interesting combination...which made space usage very interesting...the night performance had around 40 people in the 64 seat venue, they stretched a fair distance out in the theatre but not all the way to the end. And if they had it would have been much harder to 'please the crowd' for much of the show I would have been neglecting far sided audience as to please the majority I was in the middle of the stage...interesting thought I had while acting that night. Of course nowadays why even have a space that is declared a stage for your use- call it a stage yourself! I know of a theatre group that does Shakespeare in the great outdoors. I'm sure the space they use was not designed as a stage, but they do their shows off and create a different experience for their audience. Coming from my own experience we have a series of floor to ceiling cupboards at the back of our drama hall at school, and deciding to risk we used them as our stage instead of the traditional stage at the other end of the hall. Did it pay off...yes. We used three cupboards as our set which means we had a series of doors which we used as a ghost-train like ride. Of course their wasn't any painted set on the doors, it was just the doors. But with a little non-naturalistic acting everyone in the room knew exactly what they were. So what's stopping you using any area as your stage (well apart from insurance and other issues like that...but hey that's a whole different blog) 'The World Is Your Stage"...use it! ...If you can't tell I'm a big fan of using alternate areas for performance, for moving audience around and seeing how that effects performance etc etc. I haven't mentioned all types of stages in the above, but I'm sure you have a favourite type- why? Because maybe you're a traditionalist, an experimenter, a teckie that loves a good lighting rig rather than a lighting tree outside in the cold, what's your favourite stage? Have you experimented with different stages? What's a good stage experience you've been part of? And this is now the stage where you post a reply! Thanks for reading.