On building a theatre / Stage construction and equipment for small theatres, schools and community

by Irving Pichel

Contemporary sketch of an Elizabethan Theatre.
(From Caffin’s Appreciation of the Drama.)

In the Roman theatre, a number of radical changes are to be noted. The large orchestra is no longer needed for a chorus, and the space is cut to a semicircle, in which are placed the chairs of the Senators. Since spectators are now on the ground level, the actors must be raised, and the stage becomes a long, shallow platform, beginning at the diameter of the circle. Raised tiers of seats, as in the Greek theatre, surround the semicircular ground space. At the back of the stage is a wall, or scæna, which also closes in each side of the stage, meeting the seats at the diameter ends. It is built to the height of the uppermost tier of seats. Since the stage extended almost the whole width of the seating, and was raised above the ground, sight lines were ideal.

Between the fall of the Roman Empire and the revival of classic learning in Italy, the theatre had no settled home. The drama went through various vicissitudes, took on new functions, expressed itself in new forms. The mediæval theatre of mysteries and miracles, after it had become secularized, went forth from the chancel of the church, and became a vagrant and an opportunist. It set up its paraphernalia in the public square, in the inn-yard, in the guild hall. For the most part, it was a daylight, outdoor recreation, with no fixed home, and no such special ceremonial functions as in the Greek and Roman state. It was proletarian, distinctly. With the Renaissance, in addition to the popular itinerant theatre of the people, there were two new manifestations. The humanists, in their academies, revived the Roman comedies of Plautus and Terence; the courts of the ruling families of the free cities became the scenes of magnificent productions of masques, pageants, “triumphs” and fêtes. These were usually allegories based on classic mythology or on ancient history, but presented largely in the form and manner of the popular drama of the time. To the presentation of the court fêtes, the greatest artists,—Bramante, Leonardo da Vinci, Giulio Romano, etc.,—brought their talents. They were given in the gardens of the palaces at night, illuminated by flares and fireworks. The “pageant” or wheeled stage of the mediæval popular drama, was used for the display of some large piece of decoration or machinery. As early as 1491, however, at Perugia, the first indoor performances were given. The stage went through various modifications, still keeping its resemblance to the stage of the mediæval drama, until one invention enforced the most radical development that had yet taken place,—perspective scenery. Hammitzsch[2] traces the invention of scenery in painted perspective to Bramante’s decoration of the sacristy of the Church of San Satiro in Milan. The wall painting represents in perspective an extended vista of the sacristy, in an attempt to make it appear larger. The modern counterpart is the mirrored restaurant. It is certain, at all events, that Peruzzi employed such scenery in dramatic representations in Rome before 1510. With these painted prospects came a variety of changes in the arrangements of the rooms in which the masques were given; the stage became more a place apart; it was set at the end of the room rather than along the sides, that the effect of distance produced by the painted prospects might be enhanced, and the proscenium frame enclosed it. However, when the theatre as a building designed specifically for the presentation of plays came into being, the form of auditorium was not so thoughtfully adapted to this new type of stage as had been the case with the ancient theatres. For it was to them that architects turned for models for the auditorium, though the stage was no longer the stage that went with the amphitheatre form of seating.

[2] Hammitzsch, Der Moderne Theaterbau, I. Teil, p. 11.

The theatre of the Academy of Olympians at Vicenza, begun in 1580 by the architect Palladio and completed in 1584 by his son Scillo (Fig. 1), is practically a Roman theatre roofed over, and equipped with a stage that compromises with the stage then in mode. It has a sloping floor (to increase the effect of the perspective) and alleys of scenery giving off each entranceway in the stage wall.

The Teatro Farnese in Parma, completed in 1619 by Aleotti, is the first modern theatre. In it appear theatre features that have come down to our own day,—the elongation of the amphitheatre auditorium into the horseshoe form, and a stage completely separated from the auditorium and equipped not only to handle the new scenery but to manipulate it quickly, so that changes of scene might be effected in the presence of the audience. In this theatre, Aleotti not only broke away from the classic stage but also from the multiple setting of the mediæval stage and definitely introduced the modern form of picture stage. Less completely did he break away from the classic seating, but he modified it somewhat to meet new conditions.

Figure 1—Plan of the Teatro Olympico, Vicenza.

With Aleotti passed the period of primitive experiment with a new instrument. From his day until very recent years, there was to be no marked change, except the introduction of balconies, a feature already anticipated in the theatres of other countries and soon employed in Italy, and the further accentuation of the horseshoe form. The old circle plan became an ellipse, and still later, as the side balconies were brought in closer to the stage, an oval.

In England, very much the same history was enacted. The old English miracle and mystery gave the theatre its platform stage, but the imitations of Latin comedy first gave it a permanent home.