Theatre Design & Technology - Feb 1969 - 10

Lighting for Isolation on the Thrust Stage
CHARLES E. WILLIAMS
The University of Calgary

One of the main design problems facing the I ighting designer for the thrust stage is that of physical isolation. The
thrust stage invites the concept of detached acting areas,
pools of light, separated from the rest of the stage by darkness. The rapid change of location, time etc. that is an integral part of many plays, (Shakespeare, for example) can be
best handled by placing various scenes in different parts of
the stage and lighting them so that there is no spill from
one scene location to another. In television or motion pictures, this rapid change and isolation is easily accomplished.
The spectator's view can be restricted by the camera so
that he sees only what he is supposed to see. On the
stage, the solution is not so simple. With a proscenium
stage and with the audience oriented as a unit in one basic
direction, the problem is not severe. A single spot picks out
the relevant action and the remainder of the stage remains
dark. It is when the action is transplanted to a thrust stage
that the problems multiply and become complex. .
Since the definition for a thrust stage form is extremely
fluid, it would be wise and consider the form as it presently
exists. The term "thrust stage" is usually applied to all
forms of staging in which part or all of the stage is thrust
toward the audience, and more properly into the area usually
reserved for the audience. The least extreme example is
that of a forestage extension in front of the standard proscenium arch. This commonly results in a very few members
of the audience on the sides of the thrust, with the vast
majority retaining a standard "proscenium view" of the
stage and the actors. At the other extreme is what might
better be described as a "peninsular" stage, that is a deep
thrust into the auditorium with a large segment of the audience on the sides of the stage, able to view the back of an
actor facing front. A second commonly encountered feature
of this latter form is a steeply raked auditorium, giving most
of the spectators a downward viewing angle somewhat akin
to a hospital operating theatre. The peninsular stage may be
backed with a wall or occasionally a proscenium stage.

Figure 1: Two instruments immediately adjacent in a horizontal plane
Figure 2: Two instruments close together in a vertical
plane (not to exceed 20°)

Although the peninsular stage can be used for reali stic production, it is not ideal for that style, being much better
suited for non-realistic production which can make use of the
freedom inherent in the stage form. Rapid change of scene
can be accomplished with use of small scenic elements and
selective stage lighting, achieving a result which approaches
that of television in cutting from camera to camera. It is in
relation to this type of production that many of the special
problems of the form arise.

1. For what is perhaps the most careful discussion on terminology of
theatre forms, see the USITI's working paper "Theatre Terminology: On
the Clarification of Names (USITT, August 1963, mimeograph format, in
14 pages.) I have myself conducted a statistical survey (as yet unpub·
lished) which indicates that a statistically significant majority of the 152
technicians and designers surveyed in the United States were calling this
form either "thrust·stage" or "three·quarter round theatre," with a slight
preference for the latter term. Almost certainly usage has shifted in favor
of "thrust stage" since that time. (Editor)

[]illLJ THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

FEBRUARY, 1969

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