Theatres

One of the three random subjects found in my envelope was a Theatre. Im pretty sure I know what a Theatre looks like, as ive been to many in my time, however I feel research is needed to capture the best possible design for my Animation. Examples of questions I have for myself are:

• What layout for the "audience" would work best for the camera angles to create the shots without causing too much distraction from the main subject?
• What could be included to further elaborate the humour and stylistic approach to the theatre and its assets?
• An understanding of scale in reality with relation to my Characters and how it may change slightly in their world yet still keep to referenced grounds.

Here are a few images of different styles of Theatres of which I have found on the Internet.

Here we have the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford Upon Avon, one of the most famous classical theatres in existance. I have been lucky enough to go there several times as I used to live in a nearby Village, of what I can recall the Theatre itself is set with wonderful acoustics and an overwhelming interior leaving you in a magical state of awe. As you can see, outside the Theatre towers above its surroundings yet melds into its surrounding beauty. Inside however, this beauty has immersed itself into something far more darker and enchanting, yet leaving behind the visual stimulus to be intimidated.

This theatre displays a "thrust" stage, which is where the audience is surrounds three sides of the stage and the remaining side creating a background for the scenes. This creates a further intensity to the theatre which is provoked by the interaction of the audience with the actors, also somewhat making the audience feel as if they are a part of the production itself. In this particular theatre, you can clearly see there are different levels for further audience seating. This theatre is quite open and grande considering the stage is suffocated by peering eyes surrounding it.

Proscenium stage: This is the traditional style of stage most are common with where the audience sits infront of the stage looking onwards in the same direction, as if looking through a picture frame. This is the same layout as a cinema.

In grander scale proscenium theatres there is an upstairs balcony to the audience area overlooking the play from above.

Here you can see a Proscenium style theatre from the balcony view, overlooking the elegant stage below. The ceiling and walls are draped in architectural beauty which appears to spew out the exagerated soul of the theatre itself.

Another famous theatre which is somewhat different once again is the Shakespear Globe theatre in London. It is not visable from the picture below but this theatre is actually an open theatre, with an almost 360 degree audience seating area surrounding the stage.  

In this image however you can clearly see the open roof to the theatre, with the audence onlooking a production of "The Swan".

I guess one could call this a panoramic theatre, yet as it uses its original style for puting on plays it appeals to the more imaginative onlooker keen on the simplistic art of story telling without means of additional modern effects. In some senses a theatre like this would be similar to that of the large arena style theatres in Greece.

Here is a video showing a clip of "Romeo and Juliet" being played by the Royal Shakespeare Company. The use of the stage, the surroundings, the backdrop and the seated audience plus their reactions is all good research towards the enviroment of my animation. Also notice the small cast used to express the story, two male actors are used to help portray the tale by playing all the Characters themselfs plus the addition of a narrator. This could be helpful for my animation, as I can focus on less additional characters that I may not need to be able to successfully tell my story effectively.

I shall upload more cartoon style images of theatres and my characters placed within it over the next few days. Any additional ideas to throw my way will be handy!

Chris