Theater Technical Terms: Stage Equipment and Construction - Prof. Franklin Lasik, Study notes of Theatre

Download Theater Technical Terms: Stage Equipment and Construction - Prof. Franklin Lasik and more Study notes Theatre in PDF only on Docsity! Apron – part of the proscenium that extends in front of the arch. Proscenium arch – Opening through which the audience views the play in a traditional proscenium theater. Plaster line – Imaginary line drawn on floor plans between the proscenium walls on the upstage side of the proscenium arch. It is used to locate scenery on the stage. Center line – Imaginary line that bisects the proscenium arch. Perpendicular to the plaster line. Sight line – Imaginary line that helps to locate extreme lines of sight in the house. Determines the placement of masking. Fire curtain – safety curtain designed to close the proscenium automatically in case of fire. Directly upstage of the proscenium and runs into smoke pockets designed to impede smoke from moving into the house. Rhynsburger has two. Light bridge – Narrow catwalk-like platform located upstage of the proscenium and the main curtain. Used for mounting lighting instruments. Raised and lowered with the winch. Trap – a portion of the stage that can be removed to take items on and off stage. House – place where the audience sits. Lobby – the part of the theater where the audience congregates before and after the show. Cyclorama – curtain used to represent limitless space or sky. Can be flat or curved. Tripped cyc – both top and bottom attached to battons. Allows theater to have a cyc taller than the fly loft. Scrim – semi-transparent fabric that can be made merely opaque when lit. Fly gallery – stage right of the Rhyns. Theater. Catwalk structure located 20 feet off of the ground. Weight can be loaded from the platform. Pin rail – heavy steel beam with pins set at right angles. Rope supported hanging scenery hang from the pins can be removed to release the rope. Operating line – Heavy duty rope part of the counter weight system. Forms a loop starting with the top of the arbor and runs to the head block through the rope block through the stage through the tension block attached to the arbor. Arbor – Heavy steel frame holding counter weights. It is moved by the operating line. Rope lock – Clamping device attached to the locking rail. Locking rail – metal frame work of iron that holds the loft blocks. Grid iron – Heavy frame work of iron that holds the loft blocks, through which the counter cables are run. Also supports the weight of flown scenery. Loft – area above the grid that you can walk on. Stage house – the chimney-like are that includes the stage area from the floor to the ceiling. Loading platform – a platform from which the arbors of the counterweight system are loaded with weights. Batton – a piece of pipe 1½ inches in diameter, hung from steel cables. They hold scenery, curtains, and lighting equipment. Electrical batton – permanent lighting outlets. Paint frame – Counter weighted frame found in the paint area. The frame has a well beneath it to travel its entire height. Can be adjusted so the painter can work on all of it from the floor. Muslin – heavy unbleached cotton material used to cover flats and dutchman. Polyurethane – varnish-like substance used to seal and protect bare or stain; ridged or flexible foams used to create scuplture, 3d trim, and furniture cushions. Styrofoam/beadboard – Sheet of rigid foam used for sculpture and 3d trim. Plywood – sheet of lumber made of several layers laminated together, used to top platforms, make flats, and many other items. Drop cloths – plastic or muslin sheets used as moisture barriers and paint cloths. New drop cloths can be used as projection surfaces or as a glass replacement in doors or windows. Velour – velvet-like fabric used for curtains. Macenite/hardboard – hard fiberous sheet of compressed wood particles; primarily used to cover platforms. Also used for curved facing. Conduit – pipe used for carrying, concealing and protecting electrical wiring; can be used to represent steel bars. Webbing – narrow strip of fabric sewn into the top of a drop curtain, used to reinforce the drop when grommits are installed. White glue – a general purpose glue used to dutchman and many other things. Elvanol – the binder used to adhere dry pigment paint to a surface. Luan – thin relatively inexpensive sheet of plywood used for facing. Also used to make corner blocks and straps for a flat. Hexnut – hexogonal shaped nut used with a bolt to attach two materials. Brace cleats – a small metal plate attached to the back of a flat to attach a stage brace. Cable clamp – a steel fastener used to make a loop in the end of an aircraft cable or to attach two cables together. Nicopress – soft metal tube that can be crimped permanently around aircraft cable to create a loop. Foot iron – L shaped piece of hardware fastened to the bottom of a scenic unit allowing it to be temporarily fastened to the stage floor with a stage screw. Grommit – brass thing in the hole. Tie-off cleat – Piece of steel attached to the stile of a flat, used in pairs to tie-off a lash line holding two flats together. Lash line cleat – A piece of steel attached to the stile of a flat, used to pass a lash line to attach lights. Lash line eye – a small piece of steel with a whole in it usually at the top of the stile to which the lash line is tied off. Keeper hook – an s shape piece of steel slipped over a toggle bar to support a stiffener in the back of a set of flats. S hook – hook shaped like s... budumpbump Back flap hinge – a fastener consisting of two pieces of flat steel (roughly square) with eyes attached through which a pin can be inserted. Used to join flats and other scenery together. Tight pin hinge – a hinge with a pin riveted in so the two halves are united. A loose pin hinge – a hinge in which the pin is an l shape to allow for easy separation of the hinge halves. Strap hinge – a hinge with long v shaped leaves used to attach material with more width than height. Carriage bolt – A threaded bolt with a round head and square shoulders, the square Combination Square – a measuring device with an adjustable head which can mark a 90 degree angle or a 45 degree angle. Can also be used as a level. Framing square (carpenter's square) – L shaped piece of flat steel or aluminum used to check if items are perpendicular. Can also be used to lay out staircase carriages. Bevel Guage – consists of a piece of wood and flat metal piece joined by a wing nut. Used for checking and transferring angles. Level (spirit level) – a rectangular piece of steel or aluminum with small cartridges. Each cartridge has a small air bubble suspended in liquid. The level is used to determine if an item is exactly vertical or horizontal. Cross-cut saw – a hand saw designed to cut across the grain. The teeth are small and off- set slightly at opposite angles. Rip-saw – hand saw designed to cut with the grain. Teeth are fairly large and are in alignment. Coping saw – small hand-saw with a thin blade used for delicate wood working. Has a U shape frame that suspends the blade. Hack-saw – A hand saw used for cutting steel and conduit has an elongated U shaped body from which the blade is suspended. Tin-snips – a pair of shears designed to cut through tin or other soft metals, when used it bends the edge of the metal. There are varieties to cut right and left hand curves. Matte-knife (utility Knife) – a small knife with a hollow handle and a replaceable blade, many are retractable. Used for cutting cloth, foam, plastic, and other materials. Claw hammer – a hammer with a rounded claw and a flat head. Used for driving and removing nails. Rip hammer – slightly curved claw and flat head. Well suited for ripping or prying wood apart. Framing hammer – a rip hammer with a longer handle and heavier head. Used primarily to construct houses. Staple gun – a mechanical device that drives staples into soft or thin material. Used primarily for stapling muzzlin to flats. Regular screw-driver Pliers – used to grip materials or hardware. Crescent wrench – wrench with adjustable jaws that applies even pressure to either side of a nut. Used to tighten and loosen nuts and bolts. Tri-square – a small square. One side is thick plastic or wood. The other side is steel. Checks if corners are square. Used for measuring chalkline – a piece of string wound around a spool in a resevoir of chalk dust. The string can be snapped in a straight line for locating scenery, painting, and other construction. Wire-cuttings – a small pair of shears used for cutting wire. Drill-bits – steel rods that have been machined so they can bore holes through materials when twisted. There are several varieties, the most common are twist-bits and spade-bits. Crow-bar – bench piece of round or hexagonal steel used to pry apart large pieces of scenery. Has a bent claw on one end and a tapered edge on the other. Pry-bar – similar to the crow-bar. Made of flat steel and is for light duty. Needle nose pliers – similar to pliers, but tapers down to a fine point. Used to grip delicate materials and small nails. In addition the pliers have wire cutters. Phillips screw driver – screw driver with an X shape tip. Tac-puller – a screw driver like device for removing staples, has a tapered tip with a V shaped notch. Sand-paper – paper with sand and other abraisive substances attached to one side. Comes in many grains. Nut-driver – A screw-driver like tool with a hollow shaft and a hex shaped hole used for tightening and loosening nuts and bolts. Vice-grips – a pair of locking pliers with a spring loaded clamp masking tape – an adhesive covered paper used to mask of areas you don't want painted. Metal file – a piece of flat steel with small grooves cut into the surface to create a rough surface. Used to smooth edges of steel. Nico press tool – used to clamp a nico press sleeve. Lineman's pliers – used primarily by electricians this tool combines the abilities of a pair of pliers and a pair of wire cutters. Ratchet (socket wrench) – a wrench with interchangeable sockets which will turn in one direction then ratchet in the other direction. The ratcheting can be reversed to loosen nuts and bolts. Pipe-wrench – wrench designed to grip the outside of a pipe. Stage-brace – and adjustable wood or metal device with an eye at the bottom to accept a stage screw and the top has a hook to engage a brace cleat. Carriage – the diagonal member of the stair case. Supports the tread and risers. Riser – the vertical face of the staircase. Tread – the horizontal face of the staircase. Bears the weight of the traffic. Rail – horizontal top and bottom of the frame of a flat. Stiles – the verticals on the outside of the frame. Toggle – an internal rail that keeps the stiles (or rails) the same distance apart. Corner block – the triangle piece of thin plywood used to attach the stiles to the rails. Strap – another thin strip of plywood used to attach the toggle to the stile (or rail). Corner brace – A piece of wood about three feet long cut at forty five degree angles on either side. Always used in pairs. Attached to the same stile. Dutchman – Strip of muzzlin glued over a seam between platforms or flats. Two-fold – Stock scenic unit where two flats are hinged together the seem is dutchmaned over. Three-fold – Stock scenic unit where three flats are hinged together and are hinged for easy moving. Door flat – Flat with an opening for a door. Window flat – a flat with an opening for a window. Reveal – a board added to the edge of a flat to give the appearance of thickness. False proscenium – a set of flats constructed with an opening intended to further focus the action of the play and reduce the overall stage picture. Ridged jack – A triangular shaped flat frame hinged to the back of scenery then attached to the floor or weighted. Round claw – A large piece of canvas or other durable material tacked to the stage floor which has been painted to simulate something. Rake – The slope of a stage floor or platform. Stiffener – two pieces of 1x3 attached in an L shape attached to the back of a wall of flats. To keep them ridged and straight. Tormentor – Curtain often the same color as the main curtain hung at the side of the proscenium upstage of the main curtain. It can travel on or offstage to change the width of the proscenium. Leg – a black curtain hung at the side of the proscenium stage used to mask the wing space. Teaser – Hung at the top of the proscenium so the height can be changed. Turntable – A circular platform rigged to allow scenery and actors to be moved in a circular fashion. Wagon – any platform with wheels. Walk it up – The process of raising a scenic object from a horizontal to a vertical position. One person foots the bottom of a flat while another person raises the object hand over hand. Float – A method of lowering the flat. One person foots it and the rest of the flat can fall. Puts less stress on the flat. Backing – a piece of scenery set up behind a door way or window to block sight. Usually painted to represent a wall or is painted black. Masking – A piece of scenery set up behind a doorway or window to block sight lines. Backing is used to show whats behind the doorway, masking is to show unlimited space. Black flat or curtain. Ground row – a piece of scenery placed upstage of the acting area to suggest items in the distance. Often used to hide lighting instruments. Escape stairs – A stair unit leading backstage away from the set. To allow actors to make entrances and exits. Spike mark – a mark made on the floor or on a rope to indicate the working position of a scenic unit. Drop – a large sheet of canvas or muzzlin on which the designs may be painted used to enclose the upstage edge of an acting area. Genie lift – a hydrolic powered device that is designed to raise a person to allow them to work on a scenic item or lighting device or to paint scenery. Fresnel – a lighting instrument that produces a soft, diffused light. The instrument gets it's name from it's lense which is stepped. Parallel beams of light. Ellipsoidal – A lighting istrument that produces a hard edged pool of light. It gets its name from the shape of the reflector. The beam of light is shaped by shutters and gobos. Scoop – A lighting instrument with no lense. Produces a wide flood of light. PAR – A lighting instrument that produces a powerful punch of light with a soft edge. Used extensively for concert lighting. Gobo – a thin metal or glass template which can be inserted into an ellipsoidal to create a pattern of light. Gobo holder – a metal frame used to facilitate inserted a gobo into an ellipsoidal. Gel – the color media used in lighting instruments. Gel frame – A metal frame that is used to hold the gel in the lighting instrument. stage pin connector – flat electrical connector used almost exclusively in theaters. It is more rugged than other electrical connectors. C clamp – a C shaped device bolted to the yoke of an instrument. Facilitates the attachment of a lighting instrument to a batton. Safety cable – A safety device made of aircraft cable and snap hook wrapped around the