Theatre Terms | Perform Magazine

What is Dead?

Dead. The term dead is used on stage to denote several different aspects of the technical side of a production. From the flying system to both disciplines of lighting and audio visual and scenery and props alike, the word means something different.

a) The final position (on stage) of a flown piece of scenery, masking or spotbar is its dead. Some flown items will have more than one dead. They may have an ‘in’ dead and an ‘out’ dead and in some cases like masking, intermediary positions. All these different deads on a single line will be marked with a different coloured cloth dead.

b) The cloth ribbon marker on a fly line to mark the correct finish height of a piece of flown scenery, masking or lighting bar is also referred to as the dead. On any counterweight hauling line, the dead markers should always be cloth tape or similar which is passed through the open lay of the rope and tied to stop it from moving. Gaffa or PVC electrical tape should never be used because of the sticky adhesive residue left...

What is Prompt?

Talk to any actor and you will hear that they never forget their lines. Talk to the Stage Manager and you will sometimes get a different story. As a stage manager I have had to prompt forgotten lines, I have had to manage ten pages of script vanishing in a second because an actor had a momentary block and took a word cue ten pages further into the scene. Luckily there were not too many lighting or sound cues to fast forward through. The frustrating part was the next night the same thing happened. Once bitten twice prepared.

So ‘to prompt’ is to feed forgotten lines to an actor hopefully without the audience hearing or even noticing the malfunction. To prompt a forgotten line has been required since actors first trod the boards and many variations on how this is done have evolved over the centuries.

Generally speaking it is the responsibility of the Stage Manager to prompt forgotten lines and this is naturally done from the Prompt corner, the typical stage manager’s location, down stage left, Prompt Side, (PS), tucked behind the proscenium arch out of sight of the audience.

A major detour from prompting from this position occurs in opera where the singers...

What Is Chookas?

Theatre superstition is alive and well and there is one phrase that performers loathe with a passion and that is “Good Luck!” It is generally considered bad luck to utter that expression so alternatives have been adopted to offer the same sentiment without the potential after effects.

Some of those alternatives are Break a Leg, Fall down Backward, Toi,Toi,Toi, but it is Chookas that ignites most debate. Arguably it is a word that appears to be quintessentially Australian although its beginnings are shrouded in the darkness that is theatre history, sometimes. It is rumoured to have come into general usage around the early 1900s when J.C.Williamsons was at its peak and The Firm was the place to be in Australian theatre. At the time an artist’s living relied on a percentage of house takings and whether they ate or didn’t, and whether they ate chicken or soup was decided on the size of the house at any given performance. If the SM’s viewing of audience numbers at the five minute call justified it, an announcement “Chicken it is!” was made. This is said to have suffered the same fate as many an English word under the utterances of the Australian vernacular and was shortened to Chookas. Apparently at that time in Australian culinary appreciation, chicken was a delicacy and in some restaurants was the most expensive dish on offer.

If saying Good luck is in fact bad luck, and break a leg is the acceptable alternative, then one can understand that Chookas is the preferred greeting over break a leg for ballet dancers. Toi Toi Toi which is predominately an Opera saying and...

What is a Box

What is a Box?
Donna Racik, a pianist and repetiteur working as prompter on The Barber of Seville at the New York Metropolitan Opera noticed a panicked glance from a singer whose voice went AWOL. Racik began singing the role without missing a beat while the character on stage continued to play the part and mime the words. “There was never a question in my mind what needed to be done,” Racik recalls. “My colleagues had a good laugh about my ‘debut’.”
University of Delaware, ‘ Messenger’, Volume 6, Number 3, 1997

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What is a Flat?

What is a Flat?

A potential stagehand stands in front of the head mechanist of a theatre looking for a job. “Can you run a flat son?” asks the head mech. “No sir I don’t need to!” replies the lad. “Oh! Why’s that?” retorts the boss. “’cause I live with my mum.” answers the youth.

Well this young lad had a lot to learn both in theatre terminology and execution of a stagehand’s duties.

Flat. Is a basic element in scenery. It is generally constructed using a timber frame covered with canvas or ply and painted scenically to depict the desired effect. Flats are then joined together on stage to create the acting space.

French Flat. This term refers to a scenic element that generally is formed out of flats but is then battened out, stiffened and flown via the counterweight flying system. Sometimes also referred to as ‘Frenchman’.

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What is a Sitzprobe?

What is a Sitzprobe?
From the German roughly translated meaning ‘seated test’ or ‘sitting trial’, a sitzprobe is a musical rehearsal where the principals and/or chorus combine with the orchestra and conductor for the first time to run through the music of an opera or musical.
Usually conducted on stage with the orchestra in the pit and singers seated on stage without scenery, costumes or movement, the purpose is many-fold. It is probably the first time the orchestra has combined with the cast. It gives everyone an opportunity to hear the acoustics of the venue and most importantly for the conductor or musical director it allows the maestro to balance music to voice.

Proscenium

What is a Proscenium?
The Proscenium or Proscenium Arch (abbreviated to pros.) is the divider between the Stage and the Auditorium - the Frame through which the audience views the stage scene. It is normally found in more traditional theatres and is usually structural, providing a mask for theatrical equipment (curtains, lighting luminaries and scenery) to aid in hiding the workings of a stage from the audience’s vision. It is made up of the 'pros header', which is the horizontal pelmet across the top of the frame/opening and two 'pros legs', which are the vertical sides to the frame/opening.

The word Proscenium is derived and Latinised from the old Greek word proskēnion. Pro, before, skēnē, stage.

The skēnē also referred to the wall behind the acting area of early Greek amphitheatres.

Below is a cross section drawing of the fine decorative detail in the Proscenium Arch for the then-proposed remodelling (circa 1918) of the Princess Theatre – Melbourne for Fullers Theatre Limited. (Sketch hand drawn by Iain Audsley).

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