Performance Venues

Question 1

Amphitheatre

Answer 1

Circular or oval open-air theatre with a large raked seating area (often semi-circular) sloping down to the stage.

Question 2

Apron

Answer 2

The Apron is a section of the stage floor which projects towards or into the auditorium.

Question 3

Black box

Answer 3

A flexible studio theatre where the audience and actors are in the same room, surrounded by black tabs (curtains).

Question 4

End on

Answer 4

Traditional audience seating layout where the audience is looking at the stage from the same direction. This seating layout is that of a Proscenium Arch theatre.

Question 5

Found space

Answer 5

A performance space that wasn’t designed to be one (e.g. historic buildings, factories, public areas).

Question 6

In the round

Answer 6

Theatre in the Round is a form of audience seating layout where the acting area is surrounded on all sides by seating. There are often a number of entrances through the seating. Special consideration needs to be given to onstage furniture and scenery as audience sightlines can easily be blocked.

Question 7

Promenade

Answer 7

Form of staging where the audience moves around the performance space and sees the play at a variety of different locations.

Question 8

Proscenium arch

Answer 8

The opening in the wall which stands between stage and auditorium in some theatres; the picture frame through which the audience sees the play. The
“fourth wall”.

Question 9

Site specific theatre

Answer 9

A piece of performance which has been designed to work only in a particular non-theatre space.

Question 10

Thrust

Answer 10

Form of stage which projects into the auditorium so that the audience is seated on at least two sides of the extended piece.

Question 11

Traverse

Answer 11

Form of staging where the audience is on either side of the acting area.