Community Theatre design
Sat, 22 Jan 2000, 11:14 amWalter Plinge3 posts in thread
Community Theatre design
Sat, 22 Jan 2000, 11:14 amWe are converting a flat floor community hall into raked seating auditorium for plays, drama, dance etc. The hall has a raised stage .900 high and will have a lower thrust stage or performance at floor level in front. Open hall is 17m deep by 13m wide. Our pro bono architect has designed some raked seating first three rows 200mm intervals high (all by 950deep). The next three rows are 300 high. I don't believe that gives us good sightlines so that you can see something happening to a body on the floor of the stage, and certainly on the area in front of the stage. Are there any printed guidelines for community theatre design I can present to the meetings?
RE: Community Theatre design
Tue, 1 Feb 2000, 07:03 pmCaroline D wrote:
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> We are converting a flat floor community hall into raked seating auditorium for plays,
> drama, dance etc. The hall has a raised stage .900 high and will have a lower thrust
> stage or performance at floor level in front. Open hall is 17m deep by 13m wide.
> Our pro bono architect has designed some raked seating first three rows 200mm
> intervals high (all by 950deep). The next three rows are 300 high. I don't believe that
> gives us good sightlines so that you can see something happening to a body on the
> floor of the stage, and certainly on the area in front of the stage. Are there any
> printed guidelines for community theatre design I can present to the meetings?
I can't help with printed guidelines, but perhaps you should have the architect provide a side elevation drawing of the auditorium, indicating how sight lines are likely to be affected.
I don't pretend for a moment that i'm an architect, but if i'm reading your description correctly, the seating you describe certainly wouldn't allow a body on the auditorium level thrust to be seen. Is this so hard to work around? Surely you'd block any performance so that the "thrust" area was only ever used when standing?
Cheers
Grant
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> We are converting a flat floor community hall into raked seating auditorium for plays,
> drama, dance etc. The hall has a raised stage .900 high and will have a lower thrust
> stage or performance at floor level in front. Open hall is 17m deep by 13m wide.
> Our pro bono architect has designed some raked seating first three rows 200mm
> intervals high (all by 950deep). The next three rows are 300 high. I don't believe that
> gives us good sightlines so that you can see something happening to a body on the
> floor of the stage, and certainly on the area in front of the stage. Are there any
> printed guidelines for community theatre design I can present to the meetings?
I can't help with printed guidelines, but perhaps you should have the architect provide a side elevation drawing of the auditorium, indicating how sight lines are likely to be affected.
I don't pretend for a moment that i'm an architect, but if i'm reading your description correctly, the seating you describe certainly wouldn't allow a body on the auditorium level thrust to be seen. Is this so hard to work around? Surely you'd block any performance so that the "thrust" area was only ever used when standing?
Cheers
Grant