Stagecraft
Stagecraft (or Technical Theatre) is the art of building, attaching, and rigging scenery for theater and television as well as other technical aspects of performance including sound, costuming, makeup, and lighting.
It comprises many disciplines, typically divided into seven main sections:
- Scenery, which includes set construction, scenic painting, theatrical properties, theater drapes and stage curtains, and special effects.
- Lighting, which includes both the design and actual operation of the instruments themselves.
- Sound design, which can include musical underscoring as well as theatrical sound effects.
- Theatrical properties, or props, which includes furnishings, set dressings, and all items large and small which cannot be classified as scenery, electrics or wardrobe. Props handled by actors are known as handprops, and props which are kept in an actor's costume are known as personal props.
- Costume design, or costume construction.
- Makeup, or the application of makeup to accentuate an actor's features.
- Production, comprising stage management, production management, show control, house management and company management
In its most basic incarnation, stagecraft may consist of a sole Stage manager, who sets up all the scenery, organizes the cast, and runs the lighting instruments. At the full-time professional end of the spectrum, for example in modern Broadway and opera, stagecraft for a production may include hundreds of skilled carpenters, painters, electricians, stagehands, stitchers, wigmakers, etc. In this form, modern stagecraft is a highly technical and specialized field, with many sub-disciplines and a vast trove of history and tradition.
The majority of stagecraft is practiced in an environment between these two extremes, with a dedicated crew of people of the various disciplines working together with the actors and directors to pull together a successful production.
External links
- "Blue-room" UK based forum for the discussion of technical theatre by its practitioners
- "Stagecraft" USA based mailing list for the discussion of technical theatre by its practitioners
- "Ukslc.org" Uk Based Sound and Lighting Community, News, Review, Chat and more...
See also
- Stage
- Stage lighting
- Performance
- Sound stage
- Samuel James Hume Organiser of the first exhibition of stagecraft in the United States.
- Technical rehearsal
- Technical week
- Stagehand
- Running crew
Categories
Stagecraft