Term |
Definition |
|
Bi-Parting Panels |
These curtains provide a sound and sight barrier between audience and stage. The design most often used is the pleated traveler, a bi-parting curtain with two panels with a 3-foot center overlap. |
|
Border |
A narrow horizontal masking piece (flattage or cloth), normally of neutral colour (black) to mask the lighting rig and flown scenery from the audience, and to provide an upper limit to the scene. Often used in conjunction with LEGS. |
|
Cyclorama |
The largest single piece of scenery in the theatre is the cyclorama or "cyc". As the name implies, it encircles or partially encloses the scene to form the background. It's most familiar use is as a sky or void backing a setting or elements of scenery placed in the foreground. The flat background of the cyclorama blends into the sides in a gentle arc and is kept smooth by fastening the tielines to both a top and bottom curved pipe. Occasionally it is painted with a decorative or pictorial scene to fit a specific show. |
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Dead Hung |
A rigging point direct to the grid / beams above the stage. |
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Gauze |
Cloth with a relatively coarse weave. Used unpainted to diffuse a scene played behind it. When painted, a gauze is opaque when lit obliquely from the front and becomes transparent when the scene behind it is lit . Many different types of gauze are available ; Sharkstooth gauze is the most effective for transformations, because it is the most opaque. Vision gauze is used for diffusing a scene and for supporting cut cloths. Also known as a Scrim. |
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Grand Drape |
The front curtain - known also as the grand drape, act curtain or house curtain - hangs just upstage of the proscenium arch. |
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Legs |
Drape set as masking piece at the side of the acting area. Usually set up in pairs across the stage and used in conjunction with borders to frame the audiences view. Additional stage depth and masking of technical equipment is achieved by the placement of multiple sets of legs and a border. |
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Proscenium Arch |
In theatrical design, the arch that frames a stage, separating it from the auditorium. |
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Scrim |
A scrim is a Gauze-like textured fabric. Due to the scrim fabric's unique capabilities, when lit from the front, a scrim appears opaque. When the front light is turned off, however, and objects behind the scrim are lit, the fabric appears transparent. Shark's-tooth scrim fabric, with its rectangular weave is dense enough to provide a dye-painting surface and still become transparent when back-lighted, therefore making it an extremely versatile piece of stage scenery. |
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Teaser |
Border, usually black, set behind the proscenium to form an inner frame to the stage, and to mask the upper parts of stage hardware. |
|
Track |
Metal structure with rails on which curtain runners are placed to enable curtains to open and close smoothly. |
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