Main stage

Last updated April 21, 2019

Main stage or mainstage refers to the largest or most prestigious space of a theatre building and to the productions performed in that space. Mainstage theatre has been historically distinguished from smaller-scale studio theatre. It is usually performed in a proscenium theatre or on a thrust stage. Main stage is also used to describe the performance space with the largest audience capacity at a performing arts festival or other venues.

A theater, theatre or playhouse, is a structure where theatrical works or plays are performed, or other performances such as musical concerts may be produced. While a theater is not required for performance, a theater serves to define the performance and audience spaces. The facility is traditionally organized to provide support areas for performers, the technical crew and the audience members.

A proscenium is the metaphorical vertical plane of space in a theatre, usually surrounded on the top and sides by a physical proscenium arch and on the bottom by the stage floor itself, which serves as the frame into which the audience observes from a more or less unified angle the events taking place upon the stage during a theatrical performance. The concept of the fourth wall of the theatre stage space that faces the audience is essentially the same.

Historical usage

In the 19th and early 20th centuries almost all theatres were built on the proscenium model. With the growth of studio theatres from the 1920s and their increasing adoption by traditional theatres as an ancillary space for smaller productions, theatrical management began to differentiate between its "main theatre" and "studio theatre." The concept of the main theatre became unattractive to those members of the profession working on large-scale events and others who felt that it was a diminishing part of modern theatre. The phrase "main theatre" lacked significance for those institutions that had a single traditional stage only. By the end of the 20th century the term "main stage" was well established as a description of traditional western theatres and the productions performed in them.

Nineteenth-century theatre describes a wide range of movements in the theatrical culture of Europe and the United States in the 19th century. In the West, they include Romanticism, melodrama, the well-made plays of Scribe and Sardou, the farces of Feydeau, the problem plays of Naturalism and Realism, Wagner's operatic Gesamtkunstwerk, Gilbert and Sullivan's plays and operas, Wilde's drawing-room comedies, Symbolism, and proto-Expressionism in the late works of August Strindberg and Henrik Ibsen.

Twentieth-century theatre describes a period of great change within the theatrical culture of the 20th century, mainly in Europe and North America. There was a widespread challenge to long-established rules surrounding theatrical representation; resulting in the development of many new forms of theatre, including modernism, Expressionism, Impressionism, political theatre and other forms of Experimental theatre, as well as the continuing development of already established theatrical forms like naturalism and realism.

Modern usage

Music festivals

A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, and are often inclusive of other attractions such as food and merchandise vending machines, performance art, and social activities. Large music festivals such as Lollapalooza are constructed around well known main stage acts and lesser known musicians and bands on side stages. Many festivals are annual, or repeat at some other interval, and have modular staging of many types. Each year Lollapalooza often features multiple acts on its main and side stages.

A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. Next to religion and folklore, a significant origin is agricultural. Food is such a vital resource that many festivals are associated with harvest time. Religious commemoration and thanksgiving for good harvests are blended in events that take place in autumn, such as Halloween in the northern hemisphere and Easter in the southern.

Music is an art form and cultural activity whose medium is sound organized in time. General definitions of music include common elements such as pitch, rhythm, dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture. Different styles or types of music may emphasize, de-emphasize or omit some of these elements. Music is performed with a vast range of instruments and vocal techniques ranging from singing to rapping; there are solely instrumental pieces, solely vocal pieces and pieces that combine singing and instruments. The word derives from Greek μουσική . See glossary of musical terminology.

Nationality is a legal relationship between an individual person and a state. Nationality affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the state. What these rights and duties are varies from state to state.

Strip clubs

In strip clubs, the main stage is where the currently featured performer will dance as part of a rotation.^[1] In most clubs the main stage is a dominant feature of the layout. During each set of one or more songs, the current performer will dance on stage in exchange for tips. Dancers collect tips from customers either while on stage or after the dancer has finished a stage show and is mingling with the audience. A customary tip (where customers can do so at the stage) is a dollar bill folded lengthwise and placed in the dancer's garter from the tip rail.^[1] The area of the tip rail is equivalent to the apron in traditional theatre.

Garters are articles of clothing: narrow bands of fabric fastened about the leg, used to keep up stockings, and sometimes socks. In the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, they were tied just below the knee, where the leg is most slender, to keep the stocking from slipping. The advent of elastic has made them less necessary from this functional standpoint, although they are still often worn for fashion. Garters have been widely worn by men and women, depending on fashion trends.

The apron is any part of the stage that extends past the proscenium arch and into the audience or seating area. The Elizabethan stage, which was a raised platform with the audience on three sides, is the outstanding example.

The most common type of strip club main stage is the thrust stage, but the other major forms are also used regularly. Theatre in the round is also a popular form of strip club staging for its main stage.

In theatre, a thrust stage is one that extends into the audience on three sides and is connected to the backstage area by its upstage end. A thrust has the benefit of greater intimacy between performers and the audience than a proscenium, while retaining the utility of a backstage area. Entrances onto a thrust are most readily made from backstage, although some theatres provide for performers to enter through the audience using vomitory entrances. A theatre in the round, exposed on all sides to the audience, is without a backstage and relies entirely on entrances in the auditorium or from under the stage.

A theatre in the round, arena theatre or central staging is a space for theatre in which the audience surrounds the stage.

Related Research Articles

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to theatre:

A black box theater is a simple performance space, that varies in size, and is usually a square room with black walls and a flat floor. The simplicity of the space is used to create a flexible stage and audience interaction. The black box is a relatively recent innovation in theatre.

A stripper or exotic dancer is a person whose occupation involves performing striptease in a public adult entertainment venue such as a strip club. At times, a stripper may be hired to perform at a bachelor party or other private event.

Experimental theatre began in Western theatre in the late 19th century with Alfred Jarry and his Ubu plays as a rejection of both the age in particular and, in general, the dominant ways of writing and producing plays. The term has shifted over time as the mainstream theatre world has adopted many forms that were once considered radical.

Strip club Club showing striptease or other erotic or exotic dances

Strip clubs are venues where strippers provide adult entertainment, predominantly in the form of striptease or other erotic or exotic dances. Strip clubs typically adopt a nightclub or bar style, and can also adopt a theatre or cabaret-style. American-style strip clubs began to appear outside North America after World War II, arriving in Asia in the late 1980s and Europe in the 1978, where they competed against the local English and French styles of striptease and erotic performances.

In theatre and performing arts, the stage is a designated space for the performance of productions. The stage serves as a space for actors or performers and a focal point for the members of the audience. As an architectural feature, the stage may consist of a platform or series of platforms. In some cases, these may be temporary or adjustable but in theaters and other buildings devoted to such productions, the stage is often a permanent feature.

Vomitorium A passage in a theatre allowing crowds to exit

A vomitorium is a passage situated below or behind a tier of seats in an amphitheatre or a stadium, through which big crowds can exit rapidly at the end of a performance. They can also be pathways for actors to enter and leave stage. The Latin word vomitorium, plural vomitoria, derives from the verb vomō, vomere, "to spew forth". In ancient Roman architecture, vomitoria were designed to provide rapid egress for large crowds at amphitheatres and stadia, as they do in modern sports stadia and large theatres.

The Etobicoke School of the Arts (ESA) is a specialized public arts-academic high school located in the Etobicoke area of Toronto, Ontario, Canada Royal York Collegiate Institute facility. Founded on September 8, 1981, the Etobicoke School of the Arts has the distinction of being the oldest, free standing, arts-focused high school in Canada.

The Denver Performing Arts Complex located in Denver, Colorado, is one of the largest performing arts centers in the United States. The DPAC is a four-block, 12-acre (49,000 m²) site containing ten performance spaces with over 10,000 seats connected by an 80 ft (24 m) tall glass roof. It is home to a theatre company, Broadway touring productions, contemporary dance and ballet, chorales, a symphony orchestra, opera and more.

The National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) is a multi-venue, multi-purpose cultural centre in Mumbai, India, which aims to promote and preserve India's heritage of music, dance, theatre, film, literature and photography. It also presents new and innovative work in the performing arts field. The Centre was founded in 1969 by JRD Tata and Dr. Jamshed Bhabha,.

The Dolman Theatre is located in the city of Newport, Wales, United Kingdom. The theatre was formally an integral part of Kingsway Shopping Centre until major restructuring of the shopping centre forced what was the main entrance of the theatre to be closed; the theatre was refurbished in 2005, with what was the main entrance from inside the shopping centre becoming a single-door emergency exit into Kingsway Shopping Centre; along with this change the side of the theatre facing onto Emlyn Square Road was drastically rebuilt with a new glass frontage and redesigned box office and foyer-bar area to match the rest of the renovations also in progress throughout the city.

The Benedicta Arts Center (BAC) is a performing arts center located on the campus of the College of Saint Benedict. Built in 1964 by the Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict in the city of St. Joseph, MN, the Benedicta Arts Center has remained a powerhouse for the arts in Central Minnesota.

The Naples Players (TNP) is a nationally recognized community theatre company located in Naples, Florida. The company was founded January 19, 1953 and performs in the Sugden Community Theatre at 701 5th Avenue South in downtown Naples. It has been named the "Best Live Theatre" in Southwest Florida fifteen times by the readers poll of The Naples Daily News.

The Adelaide College of the Arts,, is a campus of TAFE South Australia that specialises in performing arts education. It is located on Light Square, Adelaide, opposite the Adelaide campus of TAFE SA.

The Marblehead Little Theatre is a community theatre in Marblehead, Massachusetts, founded in 1956.

References

1 2 Hess, Amanda (2009-02-19). "Strip Club: Way Less Depressing Than The Rest of D.C.!". Washington City Paper. Retrieved 2010-06-06.

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[WCP_Archibalds_2009-1] 1 2 Hess, Amanda (2009-02-19). "Strip Club: Way Less Depressing Than The Rest of D.C.!". Washington City Paper. Retrieved 2010-06-06.