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30-755: The Inlet Theatre is a proscenium theatre located at the Port Moody Civic Centre in Port Moody , British Columbia , overlooking Burrard Inlet . The theatre regularly features plays, concerts, and dance performances, as well as a host of special events including the Port Moody Canadian Film Festival each February and the Festival of the Arts each April. The theatre has up to 206 seats, with 159 permanent seats on

60-412: A good view because the performers need only focus on one direction rather than continually moving around the stage to give a good view from all sides. A proscenium theatre layout also simplifies the hiding and obscuring of objects from the audience's view (sets, performers not currently performing, and theatre technology). Anything that is not meant to be seen is simply placed outside the "window" created by

90-520: A proscenium arch, but the term thrust stage is more specific and more widely used). In dance history , the use of the proscenium arch has affected dance in different ways. Prior to the use of proscenium stages, early court ballets took place in large chambers where the audience members sat around and above the dance space. The performers, often led by the queen or king, focused in symmetrical figures and patterns of symbolic meaning. Ballet's choreographic patterns were being born. In addition, since dancing

120-503: A proscenium theatre. The Teatro Olimpico was an academic reconstruction of a Roman theatre. It has a plain proscaenium at the front of the stage, dropping to the orchestra level, now usually containing "stalls" seating, but no proscenium arch. However, the Teatro Olimpico's exact replication of the open and accessible Roman stage was the exception rather than the rule in sixteenth-century theatre design. Engravings suggest that

150-407: A storage space under the stage, or halfway to floor level, or all the way up, level with the stage. When lowered all the way, the lift can be filled with equipment or props from underneath the stage and then raised and unloaded on stage. The pit can be raised so it is level with the floor of the audience seats to accommodate more seating. This is common when the stage is being used for a rock show and

180-401: Is no English equivalent ... It would also be possible to retain the classical frons scaenae . The Italian "arco scenico" has been translated as "proscenium arch." In practice, however, the stage in the Teatro Olimpico runs from one edge of the seating area to the other, and only a very limited framing effect is created by the coffered ceiling over the stage and by the partition walls at

210-487: Is the case in modern theatres. A proscenium stage is structurally different from a thrust stage or an arena stage , as explained below. In later Hellenistic Greek theatres the proskenion (προσκήνιον) was a rather narrow raised stage where solo actors performed, while the Greek chorus and musicians remained in the "orchestra" in front and below it, and there were often further areas for performing from above and behind

240-475: The action took place in front of the scaenae frons and that the actors were rarely framed by the central archway). The Italian word for a scaenae frons is " proscenio ," a major change from Latin. One modern translator explains the wording problem that arises here: "[In this translation from Italian,] we retain the Italian proscenio in the text; it cannot be rendered proscenium for obvious reasons; and there

270-435: The beginning of dance-performance as a form of entertainment like we know it today. Since the use of the proscenium stages, dances have developed and evolved into more complex figures, patterns, and movements. At this point, it was not only significantly important how the performers arrived to a certain shape on the stage during a performance, but also how graciously they executed their task. Additionally, these stages allowed for

300-416: The characters performing on stage are doing so in a four-walled environment, with the "wall" facing the audience being invisible. Many modern theatres attempt to do away with the fourth wall concept and so are instead designed with a thrust stage that projects out of the proscenium arch and "reaches" into the audience (technically, this can still be referred to as a proscenium theatre because it still contains

330-402: The corners of the stage where the seating area abuts the floorboards. The result is that in this theatre "the architectural spaces for the audience and the action ... are distinct in treatment yet united by their juxtaposition; no proscenium arch separates them." A proscenium arch creates a "window" around the scenery and performers. The advantages are that it gives everyone in the audience

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360-473: The curtain usually comes down just behind the proscenium arch, it has a physical reality when the curtain is down, hiding the stage from view. The same plane also includes the drop, in traditional theatres of modern times, from the stage level to the "stalls" level of the audience, which was the original meaning of the proscaenium in Roman theatres , where this mini-facade was given more architectural emphasis than

390-534: The front of the pit, where a barrier, typically in wood, screened the pit. What the Romans would have called the proscaenium is, in modern theatres with orchestra pits, normally painted black in order that it does not draw attention. In this early modern recreation of a Roman theatre, confusion seems to have been introduced to the use of the revived term in Italian. This emulation of the Roman model extended to refer to

420-403: The orchestra level, plus room for another 47 seats and wheelchairs (depending on event configuration). 49°16′57″N 122°49′48″W  /  49.282411°N 122.829975°W  / 49.282411; -122.829975 Proscenium It can be considered as a social construct which divides the actors and their stage-world from the audience which has come to witness it. But since

450-411: The orchestra performing in front of the stage; when an orchestra pit is elsewhere in the theatres, the conductor's movements may be broadcast on monitors visible from the stage, so that actors can follow cues. Earlier in theatre history from 1500–1650 , the orchestra pit was also called the yard, and it served as a lower level that lower-class members of the audience would stand on to watch the show. It

480-414: The orchestra pit will be lowered all the way down and the musicians will play down in the pit in front of the stage. This way, the director of the orchestra is able to see what is happening on stage and has a better feel for when to start and stop the music. Sometimes, there may be precise cues that the director must give for certain sound effects, and it is crucial that they are done at the right time. Having

510-475: The orchestra play in the pit creates the problem of a lack of space, and the sound quality can suffer as instruments bleed into other instruments' microphones when musicians are seated close together. Before the 19th century, the conductor stood at the stage edge, facing the audience and orchestra, with their back towards the onstage performers, as shown in the Palais Garnier orchestra pit plan. During

540-400: The performance on stage. Many orchestra pits are also designed to feed back reasonably low decibel levels, allowing musicians to work without fears of hearing damage. Typically, a small platform in the pit accommodates the conductor, so that they can be seen by all of the musicians, who may be seated on chairs or on bleachers. A lift mechanism for the pit can usually be lowered all the way to

570-401: The pit area is wanted for standing room. When the pit is raised all the way up, level with the stage, it can be used as part of the stage to give more room for larger shows. A lift gives the theatre much more flexibility and ability to adapt to different events that it hosts. An orchestra pit does not have to be located directly in front of the stage, either, although many patrons expect to see

600-569: The proscenium arch was already in use as early as 1560 at a production in Siena . The earliest true proscenium arch to survive in a permanent theatre is the Teatro Farnese in Parma (1618), many earlier such theatres having been lost. Parma has a clearly defined " boccascena ", or scene mouth, as Italians call it, more like a picture frame than an arch but serving the same purpose: to deineate

630-414: The proscenium arch, either in the wings or in the flyspace above the stage. The phrase "breaking the proscenium" or "breaking the fourth wall" refers to when a performer addresses the audience directly as part of the dramatic production. Proscenium theatres have fallen out of favor in some theatre circles because they perpetuate the fourth wall concept. The staging in proscenium theatres often implies that

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660-566: The proskenion, on and behind the skene . Skene is the Greek word (meaning "tent") for the tent, and later building, at the back of the stage from which actors entered, and which often supported painted scenery. In the Hellenistic period it became an increasingly large and elaborate stone structure, often with three storeys. In Greek theatre, which unlike Roman included painted scenery, the proskenion might also carry scenery. In ancient Rome,

690-482: The stage and separate the audience from its action. While the proscenium arch became an important feature of the traditional European theatre, often becoming very large and elaborate, the original proscaenium front below the stage became plainer. The introduction of an orchestra pit for musicians during the Baroque era further devalued the proscaenium , bringing the lowest level of the audience's view forward to

720-434: The stage area as the "proscenium", and some writers have incorrectly referred to the theatre's scaenae frons as a proscenium, and have even suggested that the central archway in the middle of the scaenae frons was the inspiration for the later development of the full-size proscenium arch. There is no evidence at all for this assumption (indeed, contemporary illustrations of performances at the Teatro Olimpico clearly show that

750-399: The stage area in front of the scaenae frons (equivalent to the Greek skene) was known as the pulpitum , and the vertical front dropping from the stage to the orchestra floor, often in stone and decorated, as the proscaenium , again meaning "in front of the skene ". In the Greek and Roman theatre, no proscenium arch existed, in the modern sense, and the acting space was always fully in

780-435: The stage as for a concert , when providing music for forms of theatre that require it (such as opera and ballet ) or when incidental music is required. The conductor or director typically stands at the front of the orchestra pit facing the stage . In an orchestra pit, the walls are specially designed to provide good acoustics , ensuring that the sound of the orchestra flows through the entire venue without overwhelming

810-420: The use of stage effects generated by ingenious machinery. It was the beginning of scenography design, and perhaps also it was also the origin of the use of backstage personnel or "stage hands". Orchestra pit An orchestra pit is an area in a theatre (usually located in a lowered area in front of the stage ) in which musicians perform. The orchestra plays mostly out of sight in the pit, rather than on

840-520: The view of the audience. However, Roman theatres were similar to modern proscenium theatres in the sense that the entire audience had a restricted range of views on the stage—all of which were from the front, rather than the sides or back. The oldest surviving indoor theatre of the modern era, the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza (1585), is sometimes incorrectly referred to as the first example of

870-399: Was considered a way of socializing, most of the court ballets finished with a ‘grand ballet’ followed by a ball in which the members of the audience joined the performance. Later on, the use of the proscenium stage for performances established a separation of the audience from the performers. Therefore, more devotion was placed on the performers, and in what was occurring in the ‘show.’ It was

900-421: Was generally very crowded, and it was difficult to see the full stage. The amount of space in the yard varied with different stages. Everyone else would sit in the normal seating where the whole stage was visible. Since then, the orchestra pit has been changed and enhanced to work better with modern theatre. Sometimes, when an opera or musical is being performed in the theatre and there is a need for live music,

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