Bayfront Performing Arts

 

Warmups

 

We use 4 Steps in Warming Up for a performance

 

1) Get Blood Going - Do something aerobic

    Run in place, Jumping jacks, Knees up high, "Kick your own butt"

 

2) Connect to Breath - 

    Stretch so you have the most room for breath to come into your body.

    Work your Diaphram - Breathe into your belly

        Hah, Hah, Hah, Sss, Sss, Sss

 

3) Vibration - Use the body to send your sound out into the room

    Humming & Chewing

    YyyyyUP!

    Siren - Up and down the scale to access vocal range

 

4) Articulators - Refine your ability to enunciate

   P-B, PP-BB, PPP-BBB, PPPP-BBBB

   T-D, TT-DD, TTT-DDD, TTTT-DDDD

   K-G, KK-GG, KKK-GGG, KKKK-GGGG

 

  Topeka, Topeka, Topeka, Topeka  Bodega, Bodega, Bodega, Bodega

  Toy Boat, Toy Boat

  Red Leather/Yellow Leather

  Lilly Lolly, Lilly Lolly

  Wee Willy Winkle Went Away

 

  A big black bug bit the big black bear and teh big black bear bled blood

  

  Amidst the mists and coldest frosts, with barest wrists and stoutest boasts,

  He thrusts his fists against the posts, and still insists he sees the ghosts.

 

  Betty Boata bought some butter, "But," she said, "This butter's bitter.  If I put it in my batter, it will make my batter bitter.

  But a bit of better butter will make my bitter batter better."  So she bought a bit of butter, better than her bitter butter, 

  and she put it in her batter, and it made her bitter batter better.  So 'twas better Betty Boata bought a bit of better batter butter."

 

Add your own tongue twisters and warmup before EVERY performance!

 

For many more tongue twisters 

 

 

 

       

 

Types of Theatres

Theatres are built in four different configurations.  Each type of theatre has it’s own advantages and challenges

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Proscenium Stage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Usually the largest of theaters, seating up to sometimes 3,000 people or more, the Proscenium is arranged much like a movie theatre with a Proscenium arch that frames the stage.  The audience views the performance from the same general angle. In the audience the first floor of seating is called the orchestra, the 2nd floor is called the mezzanine and the 3rd floor is the balcony  - not all Proscenium stages have 3 floors of seating. Ticket prices often go down as the seats get farther from the stage. 

The Proscenium can accommodate large productions.  Often there is fly space above the stage (flies for short) where large drops and scenic pieces fly in and out of the theatre.  Off stage right and left are called the wings.  The crossover is the space upstage where actors may get from one side of the backstage to the other.  Sometimes the crossover is behind the cyclorama (a huge single piece of fabric that is used for lighting), below the stage or even outside the building.

Proscenium Stages in San Diego

Spreckles Theatre, Balboa Theatre, Civic Center, Mandel Weiss and Mandeville Auditorium (UCSD/La Jolla Playhouse), Don Powell (SDSU) Old Globe Theatre, Moxie Theatre.

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Thrust Stage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Audiences are seated on 3 sides of the Thrust Stage.  Set design often uses the floor because the audience is usually on a steep rake (angle).  Actors enter from vomitoriums (voms) that go underneath the audience.

Thrust Stages in San Diego

Forum Theatre at UCSD/La Jolla Playhouse, Cygnet Theatre in Old Town, Lambs Players- Semi-thrust in Coronado, Blk Box  -Ion Theatre Company.

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Arena Stage/In-the-Round

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Arena stage has audience seated on all sides.  The most intimate of theaters, the Arena usually seats less than 300 people. The stage directions are different from those used in the other theaters based on a clock or North, South, East, West because actors are always facing different directions.  

Arena Stages in San Diego

The White Theatre at the Old Globe.

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Black Box Theatre

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Black Box theatre is an open space that can be arranged in any way.  Sometimes designers will arrange a Black Box in a Cabaret Style with tables and chairs where the actors can mingle among the patrons.  Other options have put the playing space like a runway down the center of the audience.  The audiences are usually small and experimental plays are often performed in a Black Box. Black Box theaters are at most colleges and Universities.

Black Box Theatres in San Diego

The Space at the Lyceum Theatre, The Pottiker at La Jolla Playhouse. Black Box theaters are at most colleges and Universities. Bayfront's theatre is a Black Box Theatre!

 

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Stage Directions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Stage Directions for Proscenium and Thrust stages are above. Stage directions depend on where the audience is. In this case the audience would be at the bottom of the diagram but if they were at the top, the stage directions would be different. Remember that Stage Right and Stage Left are the Actor's Right and Left.  The Director is the one who has to flip the directions in her/his mind. Note that the audience would be closest to the Downstage area.  Downstage and Upstage come from the time when the stage was Raked (or on an angle) so that when the actor moved toward the audience they actually travelled down and when the moved away from the audience they moved up.  Raked stages are still used today but even a flat stage uses the terms Upstage and Downstage.

Remember that an Arena or In-the Round stage would not use these stage directions but instead N,S,E,W or the face of a clock would be set up between the actors, directors, designers, and crew.

The general term for where actors move and when is called Blocking or Staging.  When an actor makes a specific move from one place on stage to another we call that a Cross. We use an X as a symbol for this move.  So if a director asks the actor to "Cross Down Right"  the actor would write XDR.  They might then XUR or Exit L.  These shortcuts are used when the actors are putting the play onto the stage and each actor is writing their blocking into their script. Always use pencil!  Directors often change their minds!