Italian Rennaisance and Contemporary Theater Anatomy

Question 1

Perspective

Answer 1

Perspective drawing

• Closer things drawn bigger
• Things that are farther away drawn smaller

Question 2

Proscenium

Answer 2

Frame around the skene (scene house)

“Pro-skene”

Question 3

Drop/Backdrop

Answer 3

A painted background

Painted piece of fabric

Used to create an environment

Question 4

Cyclorama

Answer 4

Do not touch!

Not painted- like a movie screen

Piece of white fabric that can be projected on or have lights shown on it

Question 5

Flats

Answer 5

Wooden frame with muslin fabric stretched over it

Painted so the fabric goes taught

A painted canvas

Bigger ones used as walls

A keystone with bracing, sometimes with a door

Question 6

Legs

Answer 6

Fabric that hangs down and borders the stage

Masks the wings and prevents the audience from seeing the wings

Question 7

Wings

Answer 7

The places on the sides of the stage where the audience cannot see

The actors wait here until needed onstage

Props are also stored here

Question 8

Fly Space

Answer 8

A space above the stage (quite high)

With pulleys

Used to have ropes with sandbags- now there are pig irons

Must have counterweights

Question 9

Pin Rail

Answer 9

What the ropes are connected to

Usually quite involved for safety purposes

Question 10

Pit

Answer 10

In front of the apron

Can be lowered

-Sometimes the apron can be lowered to become the pit

Question 11

Thrust

Answer 11

A stage in which the audience is seated on three sides

The stage thrusts into the audience

Question 12

Apron

Answer 12

Downstage

In front of the curtains

-Only a little beyond the proscenium (if it goes too far, it becomes a thrust)

Question 13

Neoclassical Ideals

Answer 13

Unity of time, place, and action

1 day, 1 location, no subplot

-1 or 2 Shakespeare plays are neoclassical, but most take place over multiple days