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veteran
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"Nosebleed section" is a term frequently used herebouts for the highest tier of the bleachers at the ballpark. (And that is very high up. At Camden Yards, if you're in the nosebleeds, you can't see what direction a hit ball is going -- you have to watch which way the fielders are running. You are so high up the perspective is skewed.)
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Joined: Feb 2002
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old hand
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old hand
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Almost any box office treasurer will attest that a surprising number of ticket buyers don't even understand the term "orchestra."Ahhh, so true. I used to work in the box office at the Stratford Festival of Canada. How vividly I remember the strange questions and requests...including the one patron who asked for "orchestra seats in the balcony." Gotta choose one or 'tother, lady. Then there were the patrons who asked for seats facing the stage.....because we sold so many seats facing the back wall, I suppose. 
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addict
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addict
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Then there were the patrons who asked for seats facing the stage.....because we sold so many seats facing the back wall, I suppose.
I was supposed to ask for front facing seats? No wonder I saw so much of the rest of the theater!
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Joined: Nov 2000
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veteran
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veteran
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To continue with Drow's work on supplying you with words:
- Proscenium - the arch at the front of the stage which defines the limit of the stage and its action
- Drop - a piece of scenery, usually in the back of a set, in which case it's called a backdrop, which is suspended from a metal bar and is raised and lowered.
- Scrim - a gauze curtain which is semi-transparent or can be nearly opaque depending on how it is lit. Nearly always hung from a rail, like a drop. It has to be weighted with pipe in the hem at the bottom to keep it hanging straight without wrinkles. The effect of a scrim is to cancel perspective -- anything you see behind it, you see in a flat plane.
- traveler - a curtain which is in two parts and which opens and closes sideways, the two halves going offstage to left and right.
- fly - v., to raise [a drop or curtain hung from a rail] off the stage. n. a curtain which rises in this manner
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
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May I suggest the follow link for a well-organized glossary of theatrical terms: http://www.theatrecrafts.com/glossary/glossary.shtml
Here are some excerpts:
LOGE
Seating area in traditional proscenium arch venues. Exact location varies according to the venue, but is usually a "box" position at the dress circle level. (From the French Logè)
GREEN ROOM
Room close to the stage (i.e. the green) for the actors to meet and relax.
GODS
Colloquial term for the Upper Circle of the auditorium.
BLACK BOX
A kind of studio theatre where the audience and actors are in the same room, surrounded by black tabs (curtains). Doesn't necessarily describe the audience layout.
CIRCLE
The balcony with tiered seating above the stalls. Also known as Dress Circle or Grand Circle. See also UPPER CIRCLE.
THRUST
Form of stage which projects into the auditorium so that the audience are seated on at least two sides of the extended piece. See also END ON, IN THE ROUND.
THUNDER RUN
Long channel down which a cannonball is rolled to give a realistic thunder rumble effect. Built into the roof of some older theatres, but mostly now unused (for safety reasons).
UPPER CIRCLE
Highest balcony in the auditorium. Also known as the GODS. Normally has a very steep view down to the stage, and highly raked seating.
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
>Gotta choose one or 'tother, lady.
not according to this, from above:
Front Auditorium: Orchestra or Stalls (England)
Middle Auditorium: Mezzanine, Dress Circle, Front Balcony, First Balcony, Boxes, Side
Terrace, Side Balcony, Loge, Parterre, Galleries (England), and First Tier
Rear Auditorium: Balcony, Rear Orchestra, Family Circle, Second Balcony, Rear Balcony, The Gods (England), Second Tier, and Second Terrace
(color me confused)
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Rear Orchestra...that's up where the pigeons roost? Good grief. That's news to me.
Went to a play up at Ithaca rescently and the actors performed on the same level as the audience in a huge rehearsal room. "Chicago." Saw half of it due to an orchestra performance conflict.
Anyway, sitting there on the same level as the actors proved to be a big bother. I couldn't see a lot of the action because the actors weren't elevated--but their performance was spiritually elevating, so I sorely felt the loss of getting to see more of their movement across the floor. Too bad some kind of temporary platforms weren't used to elevate the actors just a bit.
Was this comparable to the "black box" type of performance area I read about in one of the above posts--even though there weren't any black curtains--just that rehearsal room with the orchestra elevated in back of the actors?
Best regards,
DubbedDubious
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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That sounds like a sort of black box approach, although a more typical black box theatrical production would be a play with a small cast of characters and not a lot of emphasis on scenery, something like "Waiting For Godot" for example. It is hard to imagine why a musical like "Chicago" would be done in such a setting, where you couldn't appreciate the choreography in the musical numbers.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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here's a typical seating chart including "rear orchestra": http://www.statetheatre.com/events/seatch.html(first floor, not quite the nosebleeds)
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear tsuwm,
Well, thanks! That rear orchestra area in the illustration makes sense.
In one of Richmond's old concert halls, which used to be called "The Mosque" until some folks decided it was an offensive term, the nosebleeds were the best seats in the house accoustically, even though the musicians looked like itchy, scratching ants on stage.
Beat regards,
doobydoobydubdub
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