Theater-Stage Production

Theatre techniques

Question 2: Design functions of time, place and mood establishment

The scenic design functions serve various purposes. They define the space performance through establishing time, place and moods for the dramatic action. Their primary function is to offer the audience some context of the play and create something that draws the attention of the audience. Design functions are theatre techniques that are used in facilitating a successful presentation (Napoli, and Gloman, 2013). They include the practices of time and place and the establishment of mood that enhance an understanding of the audience to the action and the acting on the stage.  The design function of time and place are used to help understand the style and tone of the production.  Through time and place functions, the audience is able to have a strong visual support for the play. They enable the establishment of the period and locale in which the place has taken place. This helps tell the story to the audience and increase their understanding.

The establishment of mood, colour and emphasis are important in enhancing concept and creating an environment that the audience will understand and get convinced by the actors. The design functions also enable understand the various settings and how the scenery is shifted.  For instance, the visibility is very significant in the stage lighting. The lighting can be used to see exactly what is required of them and those things that should remain hidden. The stage lighting is used to enable the audience to understand the representation of the location.

The quality of light in a play is important for the geographical location to enable the audience to understand what it is looking like. Light can also be used to enhance change of shape, tone and mood. It also enables the establishment of time and place, reinforce the production style, create visual compositions, establishing visual movement rhythm and creating tone and mode which are important in enabling the audience to understand the play they are seeing. Therefore, stage lighting is an important design function of time and place for multiple functions that enable the audience see and understand the reality of the story.

Question 3: Projected scenery and suggested scenery

The projected scenery is whereby projections are utilized as backdrops for the action of musical or play.  This is a common theatrical technique. These are moving and still images that are used as a substitute for enhancing constructed and painted scenery (Collins and Nisbet, 2010).  Images may be abstract or realistic in nature because they are used to set locale and establish mood. For instance, a beautiful striking image can be used in projected scenery whereby it is used to set the scene in background 

The projected scenery is used with the intention of supporting the action of the play. Projections convey a sense realistic theatrical background. Projected scenery provides high digital resolution images that can be projected on the stage of the scenery. The projected scenery has a high popping impact. Projected scenes allow the stage action to be continuously creating an exciting cinematic design. The suggested scenery is the use of any item to recreate something that may be custom made or an item that is genuine in order to create a similar scene that is appropriate for theatrical use.

Suggested scenery relies on the actual representation of the scenario and conveying the action and mood. This, therefore, is anything that is used to create a similar scene such as a street scene on the stage. For instance, a single chair can be used as a recreated street. This means therefore that a suggested scenery is used to represent a specific local such as furnishings and hangings that can be used represent a location of a certain scene. Stage structures and painted backcloths can be used to represent a specific location on stage. Suggested and projected scenery are the techniques that are used to bring a realistic image of the scene in order to enable the audience to understand the general appearance of the place or scene. In the stage production, they are important to utilize set design hence elaborating the setting on which a production on stage is performed.

Question 3: Stage wagon and turntables

A stage wagon is also known as a scenery wagon that is utilized as a mobile platform that is used for transport or support movable theatrical scenery on the stage (Leigh and Maynard, 2004). This is important for the rapid changes of the scenes on the stage. Scenery wagons are used to provide a new dimension of the elements and equipment on stage.  This enables enhanced shifting of the scenes. Scenery wagons are built as one of the methods to shift scenery during live production. A turntable enhances a revolving stage that has been mechanically controlled in a theatre in order to speed up shifting of scenes in live production. This is an important scenic design that can be utilized for scene changes.

 A turntable or revolving stage is important for speeding up shifting of scenes on the stage whereby three or more settings on the stage production can be constructed on the central pivot. The turntables and stage wagons were built in order to address the issues of theatre tensions which has an effect on the audience suspension of disbelief and patience of long gaps between one scene and another while they wrestle props and furniture’s into place in darkness. The revolving stages have brought the show to life and enhanced performance on the stage through speeding up shifting of scenes in a play.  These are specialized weapons that are relied upon for large-scale productions in order to revolve the stage at the time of action. These are important theatre techniques that are applied in order to support stage production.