In theatre , a thrust stage (a platform stage or open 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. This is in contrast to a theatre in the round , which is exposed on all sides to the audience, is without a backstage, and relies entirely on entrances in the auditorium or from under the stage. Entrances onto a thrust are most readily made from backstage, although some theatres provide for performers to enter through the audience using vomitory entrances. As with an arena, the audience in a thrust stage theatre may view the stage from three or more sides. Because the audience can view the performance from a variety of perspectives, it is usual for the blocking , props and scenery to receive thorough consideration to ensure that no perspective is blocked from view. A high-backed chair, for instance, when placed stage right , could create a blind spot in the stage left action.
22-733: The Mark Taper Forum is a 739-seat thrust stage at the Los Angeles Music Center designed by Welton Becket and Associates on the Bunker Hill section of Downtown Los Angeles . Named for real estate developer Mark Taper , the Forum, the neighboring Ahmanson Theatre and the Kirk Douglas Theatre are all operated by the Center Theatre Group . The Mark Taper Forum opened in 1967 as part of
44-600: A "Taper play"; one which is provocative, political and liberal. The Taper has been host to world premiere productions of many notable plays including The Shadow Box (1975), Zoot Suit (1978), Children of a Lesser God (1979), Neil Simon 's I Ought To Be In Pictures (1980), Lanford Wilson 's Burn This (1987), Jelly's Last Jam (1991), Angels in America (1992), Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (1994), David Henry Hwang 's revised version of Flower Drum Song (2001), August Wilson 's Radio Golf (2005) and
66-489: A modern lighting grid, and enlarging the load-in door to 6 feet by 9 feet. A wardrobe room was constructed in the space previously occupied by the air-conditioning equipment. The auditorium was renamed the Amelia Taper Auditorium after a $ 2 million gift from the S. Mark Taper Foundation. The Taper has presented innovative plays since its 1967-opening of The Devils from playwright John Whiting about
88-416: A narrow, curved hallway for a lobby. The renovation updated nearly everything that was not concrete and did not disrupt the building's circular shape. To create a larger main lobby, the designers reduced the ticket booth and removed about 30 parking spaces from the lower-level garage to move the restrooms below ground as part of a stylized lounge with gold, curved couches and mosaics of mirrored tiles that fit
110-608: The 1966 New York City transit strike . In 1967, the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles presented The Devils as its inaugural production, directed by Gordon Davidson and starring Frank Langella in the role of Grandier. The play was performed by the Melbourne Theatre Company as part of its repertory season. It starred Fred Parslow and Joanna McCallum. In 2018, the play was performed at
132-629: The Dallas Theatre Center , designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and the original Tyrone Guthrie Theatre , in Minneapolis . On October 8, 1993, a memorial was held in the actor Richard Jordan 's honor. It was the same day his final movie Gettysburg was released. In June 2023 the Center Theatre Group announced an indefinite pause of shows at the Mark Taper Forum. It re-opened a year later. A $ 30-million renovation of
154-539: The Globe Theatre . The thrust stage was generally out of use for centuries, and was resurrected by Orson Welles when he staged Doctor Faustus for the Federal Theatre Project in 1937. There, the thrust apron extended over three rows of seats at Maxine Elliott's Theatre , extending 20 feet. "It was constructed especially for the production and was probably one of the first to break out of
176-637: The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama , directed by Ben Naylor and Anna Healey. The play's action takes place primarily in Loudun , France in 1634 and revolves around a secular priest Urbain Grandier , whose adamant public opposition to Cardinal Richelieu 's ongoing centralization of the French government makes him a hot political target. The hysterical Sister Jeanne, Mother Superior of
198-522: The deformed and hysterical Sister Jeanne of the Angels, and Richard Johnson as the existential hero, Father Urbain Grandier. Diana Rigg appeared in the supporting role of Philippe and Max Adrian played the zealot exorcist, Father Pierre Barre (Max Adrian himself would go on to appear in the film version of the play , albeit not as Pierre Barre, but as Ibert, the surgeon). Whiting revised his text in 1963, shortly before his death from cancer. The play
220-623: The Ahmanson and eventually the Kirk Douglas Theater in Culver City. The Taper became known for its thrust stage, jutting into a classical, semicircular amphitheater, which creates an especially intimate relationship between audience and performer. The building bears an architectural resemblance to Carousel Theatre at Disneyland , also designed by Welton Becket and Associates in 1967. It is similar in design concept and size to
242-668: The Convent of St Ursula, falls in lust with Urbain Grandier, and subsequently accuses him of bewitching her. When these charges of witchcraft are brought against the priest, both church and state move swiftly to destroy him. The investigation, subsequent trial and eventual execution quickly take on a ludicrous carnival-like atmosphere with crazed nuns (including Sister Jeanne herself), dubious medical procedures, ecclesiastical torture and outrageous public exorcisms, all depicted with considerable onstage realism. Readers of both Huxley's book and Whiting's play will note several alterations made for
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#1732772017175264-752: The Los Angeles Music Center, the West Coast equivalent of Lincoln Center , designed by Los Angeles architect Welton Becket and Associates . Peter Kiewit and Sons (now Kiewit Corporation ) was the builder. The dedication took place on April 9, 1967, at an event attended by Governor Ronald Reagan. The smallest of the three venues, the Taper is flanked by the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and the Ahmanson Theatre on
286-486: The Music Center Plaza. Becket designed the center in the style of New Formalism , which emphasized geometric shapes. The perfectly circular Taper is considered one of his best works, featuring a distinctive decorated drum of a design with its exterior wrapped in a lacy precast relief by Jacques Overhoff . The lobby has a curving, abalone wall by Tony Duquette . Charles Moore described Becket's design for
308-498: The Music Center as "Late Imperial Depression-Style cake". Becket designed the building not knowing who would use it. Various proposals included chamber music concerts, or even grand jury meetings. Ultimately Dorothy Chandler , the Los Angeles cultural leader, convinced Center Theater Group artistic director Gordon Davidson to use the Taper. For 38 years, Davidson was the artistic director of Center Theater Group, which also ran
330-474: The Taper led by the Los Angeles firm Rios Clementi Hale Studios began in July 2007 after the 2006/2007 season. The theater reopened on August 30, 2008, for the first preview of John Guare 's The House of Blue Leaves . The Taper, as originally designed, was a case study in what happens when a theater is built without a tenant in mind. Fitting the auditorium into the circular building left a tiny backstage and only
352-647: The concept. Westminster Playhouse in Westminster California The Devils (play) The Devils is a play, commissioned by Sir Peter Hall for the Royal Shakespeare Company and written by British dramatist John Whiting , based on Aldous Huxley 's 1952 book, The Devils of Loudun . The Devils had its first performance at London's Aldwych Theatre in February, 1961, with Dorothy Tutin portraying
374-509: The era in which the building was designed. The theater seats are wider and total capacity was reduced from 745 to 739. The entrance was moved to the plaza level and an elevator added to increase the accessibility of the theater. The original theater also had very few women's restrooms opening with four women's stalls for a 750-seat hall. The renovation increased the number of stalls to 16. Backstage, changes included removing an outdated stage "treadmill" and old air-conditioning equipment, installing
396-500: The musical 13 (2007). In all, the theater has 5 Tony Awards to its credit. Thrust stage The thrust stage is the earliest stage type in western theatre, first appearing in Greek theatres , and its arrangement was continued by the pageant wagon . As pageant wagons evolved into Elizabethan theatre, many of that era's works, including those of Shakespeare , were performed on theatre with an open thrust stage, such as those of
418-530: The procenium arch in a Broadway playhouse", wrote critic Richard France . Later resurrected by director Tyrone Guthrie and designer Tanya Moiseiwitsch , a thrust stage was used in 1953 by the Stratford Shakespeare Festival of Canada . Their Festival Theatre was originally under a tent, until a permanent thrust stage theatre facility was constructed in 1957. Since that time dozens of other thrust stage venues have been built using
440-527: The sexual fantasies of a 17th-century priest and a sexually repressed nun. The play received a great deal of protest from local religious leaders and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors , although the production continued. The production of such plays as Murderous Angels , The Dream on Monkey Mountain , Children of a Lesser God , Savages , The Shadow Box , The Kentucky Cycle and Angels in America has established definition of
462-683: The stage. First, the addition of a Chorus -like character, the Sewerman , who not only provides ironic commentary but assists in the narrative action of the highly episodic play itself. Secondly, the role of Philippe is a composite character, fashioned from two historical figures in Huxley's text: Madeline de Brou and Philippe Trincant , the young and vulnerable daughter of Loudun's Magistrate. Whiting's The Devils also provided ample text, following some adaptation, for Krzysztof Penderecki 's opera, The Devils of Loudun ( Die Teufel von Loudun ). It
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#1732772017175484-530: Was subsequently produced at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. under the direction of Zelda Fichandler , and on Broadway in 1965, with Anne Bancroft and Jason Robards in the leading roles. The Broadway version was produced by Alexander H. Cohen and directed by Michael Cacoyannis , running for 63 performances. The Broadway version was forced to close because Bancroft was injured and because of
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