Musical Theatre!

 When is comes to theatre, it isn't just plays, that are all talk. In high school schools usually preform a fall drama then a musical in the spring. A musical plays are known as Musical Theatre. Some people usually prefer, musical theatre over just speaking, in plays. I think personally there both great. Musicals today are preformed every where. Some famous musicals you might have heard of, is Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, A Chorus Line, and many others (those are just a view to name off the top of my head). Now don't get musical theatre confused with opera, they are NOT the same thing, but are the same in many ways. Opera usually has more singing, than Musical Theatre, they have a libretto which is text and a musical score. Musical Theatre involves dialogue, dancing, and singing. Opera as well can have some of these as well.  Where did Musical Theatre start? Well going back to Europe it actually started in ancient greek times. The ancient greece people often combined dance and song with their performances on stage. 

Going back to musical theatre, most historians will say the real first musical is The Black Crook, which premiered in New York on September 12th, 1866. It was actually a whopping 5 1/2 ours but still it had 474 performances. Usually with musical theatre, or theatre in general it reflects what was going on during the time period. Musical was booming during the 1920's 30's 40's and 60's but since then, people have been seeing that musical theatre, is starting to decline. Now, personally I don't believe so, but with the invention of movies and going to a movie theatre, people would rather go there. But with popular musicals such as Urinetown, they have had great success on Broadway. A great musical theatre performer would be the wonderful Kristin Chenoweth. Actors such as her, have had a great success with musical theatre, and have become very famous for it. This is only dabbing a little into the whole musical theatre, how it is constructed and what makes musical theatre so popular, is just something will have to talk about next time. Since I haven't shown a video just yet, I'd thought I'd post one of the famous Kristin Chenoweth. She is singing the song Glitter and Be Gay. Just click the link and watch, though this video does not really  have any dancing in it, but it's great to watch!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVsLMxam21I

A source I used: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_theatre

Blocking Notations

       Ever wonder, how exactly actors remember where there suppose to be on stage, well it's pretty easy. It's called Blocking notations. With myself, being in high school productions, when we have certain movements like cross over to "bob" or sit down on chair, well we write it in our margins, but it doesn't make much sense to write the whole thing out, you waste room and waste time. Also the stage manager often copies down the blocking, just in case an actor forgets where he or she is supposed to be it actually is very handy, when you need something short and quick to write down, and you can completely understand it. It's not someone's personal blocking notation, but essentially a universal notation many people use, we use this especially in theatre at my school, and it does sure come in handy, if you forget blocking or if your blocking is changed. 
       So here are the basics. To change a level in an actors movement you make arrows going up and down. To distinguish between characters and objects, is super simply, but lets give an example say you have to move down to Charlie, but there is always a chair on stage, so how would you remember what/who to move down to? It's easy, you distinguish a person by circling the letter. Well what if you have to objects, how do you distinguish them both, well it's easy you add a second later, like Table and Telephone, you would put table as Ta (make the second word lower case) and telephone as Ta. Also lets say you are going to cross over to someone or something you use a X which symbolizes cross over too. If you have a specific place your suppose to be on stage, since the stage is cut in different parts, like downstage, up left center, or stage left, you would just use the initials, such as DS, ULC, and SL. A swirl means to turn around, and the number 2 is just short for to.
Look at the picture there is some example I wrote down so you have a visual on what it's suppose to look like.

The Basics On A Theatre Stage.

           Since we have discussed what types of stages can be found in theatre, it only seems right to talk about what is actually on a theatre stage.  Always just thought that a stage, was just a raised platform with curtains? Well you, not completely wrong, but your not right either. What you see on a stage, might look normal, but they have meanings in theatre, and having a good stage is important in theatre.  When you view the stage, from the audience you see the opening of the stage, this is the front view of the stage. There there can be things like the proscenium arch, which is a framed opening in which the audience see's the play. There are different kind of drapes for areas too, a valance is the top part of the main drape, and a teaser is the a type of drape, but located directly above the main stage area. 

       On stage, there are legs which are side curtains on a stage, and also wings which can't be seen by the audience but it's space on both sides of the stage, where scenery, props, etc. are stored during a show to make scene changes. It's also were actors wait before they enter on the stage. There's the apron, which is downstage, near the front drape. The audience area of the theatre, where the audience sits, is called the house. Which is why you probably hear the term in theatre, it's a full house. 

                                           
Here's a simplified look of a stage, from a bird's eye view. It doesn't show all of things on a stage, what is on a stage can vary, but this is the gist of what a theatre stage looks like. Notice how downstage is at the front of the stage, and upstage is in the back, this is usually because it is a slightly raked stage, and it goes from up to down. 
http://www.examiner.com/theatre-in-nashville/the-stage-the-invisible-character
^^ Here's the link to the photo. 


Hopefully this gave you a little insight, on what is on a theatre stage, and you can recognize it if your ever on a stage! It may seem confusing at first, but it's easy to remember.

Different Types of Theatre Stages

        Theatre is more than just acting on stage, there are important things to know that are vital. With theatre there are so many things you can go into that's not just acting on a stage, such as set design, lighting, and costume designing. So I thought it would be appropriate to learn some vocabulary about the stage, and how it is set up. 

        There are many types of theatre stages, it's not just one stage type of stage, there's a variety. Here are what I think are the main three types of stages, a proscenium stage, and thrust stage, and a arena stage.  A proscenium stage looks like a picture frame really, you can only see one view of the stage and that is the forward view of, like your at a movie theater, all seats are in the same direction, to face the screen. Next is the thrust stage, is where the audience surrounds three sides of the stage, and the stage is usually raised. The last stage is the arena stage, in which all of the stage is surrounded by the 
audience and it's usually in a circular shape, but doesn't necessarily have to be in that shape. This stage is also often raised for people to see the stage better. 
         There is also a raked stage in which the stage at is raised but slanted from up to down, prosceniums are known to have a raked stage. There is also the proscenium arch and that is a permanent frame around the opening of the stage, for which the audience sees the play. 
          So hopefully you learned a little about, the different types of stages there are in theatre. Next time I will be delving a little bit more into parts of the stage, and different views of it. Enjoy!

Here are some pictures of the three types of stages, as to what they are to look like. 

            Cited sources for the photos: http://www.lib.washington.edu/Drama/images/proscenium.jpg