THEATER TOUR

Search for a theater online. Give its description and determine the type of stage. Please draw/paste the
image of the theater.
(You can also use a theater that you already visited.)

Thrust Stage

A thrust stage has audience members on three sides of the stage, leaving one side for taller scenery. It is
sometimes called "three quarter round". For me the major benefit of this style of stage is that it brings the
actor into closer proximity with the audience. Three front rows along each of three sides of the stage
means that many more audience members will be close to the actors. On the other hand, the areas for
scenery storage and the methods of hiding scenic machinery are greatly reduced. Tall scenery (walls,
backdrops) cannot be placed anywhere except on the one side of the stage where no one is seated.
Theatrical illusion is greatly reduced on the thrust stage because most audience members will not see a
framed theatrical event but will see both the events on the stage and across the stage to audience members
seated opposite.

Thrust theatres have regained popularity in the twentieth century. Famous theatres with thrust stages
today include the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, the Olivier at the Royal National Theatre in London,
and the Festival Theatre in Stratford, Ontario.Most terms for parts of the proscenium stage are the same,
or slightly adapted, in a thrust theatre. For example, up and downstage are relative to the one wall with no
audience seating. Some terms do not apply; there are rarely fly lofts or wings in a thrust theatre. An
additional structure often found is the vomitorium, a structure for performers' entrances that originated in
ancient Roman theatres. This is a ramp that begins underneath the audience seating and leads to the
downstage end of the thrust stage; often there are two vomitoria -- one leading to each downstage corner.
It is used to bring actors and scenery on and offstage.