Stage technology
Stage technology describes the equipping of stages with technical devices and devices (see also stage machinery ). Stage technology (or stage technician ) is also used to describe the professional group of people who are not artistically active on the stage.
General
The stage technology is subject to special safety requirements and regulations as well as extensive legal test regulations. Part of the stage technology is the so-called spotlight . A distinction is made on stages between the upper machinery , the lower machinery and the stage floor.
The upper machinery denotes z. B. lighting bridges , trains for prospectus or lighting poles and ceiling sails or rotating relays.
The stage portal can be movable to reduce the largest curtain opening on a case-by-case basis. The sliding portal side panels can be designed as walk-in lighting towers. In this case, they are connected by an architrave that can be automatically pulled out on both sides and is height-adjustable , in which the first light alley is built. A lighting bridge running across the entire width of the stage should be arranged above the portal , to which two lighting bridges run vertically along the side walls halfway up the stage building, so that the playing field can be covered with spotlights from both sides. The bridge lights are now mounted on roller arms and can be easily moved to the desired position on rails or moved with a motorized remote control. On the side walls of the stage work galleries and devices for double-sided counterweight elevators for operating the light alleys or for hanging and pulling up decorations run along.
The stage prospect is the rear boundary of the stage area. A circular horizon , set up in the “Italian style”, consists of 3 parts: a background bent on both sides and 2 straight side connections. This can be set up and used as a full or partial horizon, as required. With the panorama trains set up on the back wall, the side arms of the round horizon can be hung up and pulled up as required. If the background is not curved, it is called a stage prospect . This is increasingly being used as a projection surface for overlays.
The stage floor is the display area. In the real sense, these are the boards that (should) mean the world. This floor can consist of mobile elements or be permanently installed. Black pine wood with a thickness of 40 mm and a corresponding footfall sound-absorbing base is mostly used here. In the baroque theater this floor rose towards the rear to reinforce the perspective effects. This stage slope, also known as the stage case, had an incline of approx. 1.5 cm to 4 cm per meter. Shakespeare often played with this "soil" by reproducing it again in small form on stage with a play in play.
The lower machinery is located under the stage floor and can e.g. B. include lifting platforms or turntables.
Additional areas and subdivisions may be the front stage as a flexible part of the stage floor, the orchestra pit , the side stage and the back stage. Due to the new sound techniques , a development away from the orchestra pit is becoming apparent.
The main curtain is also part of the stage technology . The main curtain in theaters is usually elaborate and decorative. There are different opening variants, for example the German, Italian or Greek opening and various technical systems. The iron curtain runs in front of the main curtain , separating the stage and auditorium before and after the performance. In the event of a fire, it is lowered immediately to separate the stage area from the audience area in a fire and smoke-resistant manner. There are different types of movement of the Iron Curtain. The rule is vertical travel from top to bottom. Another method is the movement from below to above, or coming in two parts from above and below. In some houses the iron curtain is also retracted from the side.
In addition to regional requirements, the safety regulations for stage technology in Germany can be found in the Assembly Ordinance and in the professional association regulation C1. Safety regulations of the construction industry also apply on stages , which leads to overlaps. So z. B. with a point hoist, the rope must be checked for twelve times the load capacity according to the stage standard, while the suspension as part of the ceiling of the building standard is subject to much less stringent regulations. All textiles and foils must be tested for fire behavior , smoke behavior and, in the case of plastics, drip behavior and generally be 'non-flammable', 'hardly inflammable' or 'self-extinguishing'. These guidelines also apply to all surface coatings such as lacquers, paints and varnish .
Upper machinery
Stage equipment that is located above the stage floor is known as the upper machinery .
Theater trains
For a quick change of decorations, a stage building ( stage tower ) is usually twice as high as the visible height of the stage area. This makes it possible to pull away entire parts of the scenery, curtains, festoons or brochures upwards in the direction of the lace bottom . For this purpose, pulling devices, the so-called trains , are mounted in the Schnürboden . The most common are prospect hoists where the stage parts are suspended from so-called tie rods that take up almost the entire width of the stage. The ropes are guided to the side via rollers in the lacing in the ceiling construction of the stage building and either counterbalanced and moved manually ( manual counter-hoist ) or driven by motors, which are now often controlled by computers.
Special trains:
- Point hoists only consist of a single rope and are intended for moving smaller parts. In combination, they are needed to move parts that require suspensions at different stage depths.
- Skylights are extended tie rods on which numerous spotlights and fluorescent lamps are permanently mounted, which contribute significantly to the basic lighting of the stage.
- Panorama trains are trains that carry a U-shaped tie rod that spans the entire stage and carries a background (panorama).
portal
The portal ( proscenium opening ) optically forms the front end of a stage in the direction of the auditorium.
From the viewer's point of view, it essentially consists of a black frame that limits the view of the stage upwards and towards the sides of the stage. Technically, the portal consists of the portal bridge and the portal towers . The bridge and towers contain concealed hanging options for spotlights, loudspeakers and curtains. The technical design differs from theater to theater depending on its size, but the following features are common:
- Height adjustability of the portal bridge
- Lateral adjustment of the portal towers
- A walk-in lighting gallery is concealed behind the bridge, some of which is also multi-storey
- Accessible platforms for adjusting headlights in the portal towers
Sub-machinery
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In larger theaters there is also a considerable amount of space under the stage floor, in which equipment can be accommodated to allow parts of the scenery or actors to appear from below. This space is called the sub-machinery .
Lifting platforms
Many of the larger theaters have large elevating podiums that allow entire stage sets to appear and disappear. The podiums usually extend over the entire width of the stage area. Their depth can vary, but the podiums are usually much wider than they are deep, so that a strip of the stage can be moved up and down. If several of these podiums are arranged one behind the other, the stage area can be graded easily and quickly by approaching different heights. Multi-storey, movable stage sets are also possible.
Some of the newer theaters have the ability to move entire stage spaces to the side and down at the same time, which enables up to eight entire sets to be moved (e.g. the Opéra Bastille in Paris).
A sinking is a lifting mechanism attached under a flap, which enables smaller parts of the stage or people to appear suddenly.
Stage car
In many theaters, built-in stage wagons , which often take up the entire area of the main stage, are used to quickly transport an entire set . With them, a complete set can be moved to the rear or to the side.
Turntable and turntable
The revolving stage or turntable is a round, revolving stage surface, the rotation of which also enables quick, often visually attractive changes.
The differences between the concepts revolving platform and hub are in the height.
turntable
A turntable has a relatively flat design. It can be built into a stage car so that it is possible to move the turntable off the stage when it is not needed. There are also mobile forms of turntables that can be placed on an existing stage surface.
Turntable
In contrast to the hub extends a rotating stage in the depth of the lower stage. Due to this high construction, a turntable can also accommodate lifting platforms or lowering devices, which are then rotated with it. The types of construction differ greatly in terms of height and the number of lowering devices they contain; they depend, among other things, on the architectural features of the respective theater.
An exemplary example of a revolving stage with built-in lifting platforms is the revolving stage in the Vienna Burgtheater .
A special form is the revolving stage with two disks, the core disk and the ring disk, which can rotate independently of each other. The core cylinder can often be extended as a lifting platform. One example of this is the revolving stage at the Vienna Volksoper .
Artistic importance
In modern productions , the scene is sometimes deliberately rotated within the scene, so that the actors run in the opposite direction to the direction of rotation of the stage, while the three-dimensionally built scenery and other actors can be in the background. The irritation of the eye is a desirable side effect that z. B. is used in fairground scenes (e.g. La Bohème ). With a slower turning speed the possibility opens up for the representation of a wandering (e.g. Anatevka , orig. Fiddler on the roof).
responsibility
The stage manager is responsible for the control and the technical process of events . The general manager and the technical director or technical director of a theater are jointly responsible.
See also
- Stage machinery
- Turntable
- Sinking
- Stage technician
- Stage technology in the Vienna Burgtheater
- Stage lighting
- Theater lighting
- Sound engineering
- Lighting technology
- Media control (stage technology)
- Event trigger
