Illustrated Theatre Production Guide, 2nd Edition

Properties of the Proscenium Theatre 11

Seats on the lower level of the auditorium are

known as orchestra seats. You will recall that the round

area of a Greek theatre that was often used for singing

and dancing by the chorus was also called the orchestra.

In many theatres, additional seating is provided through

the use of balconies. If there are multiple balconies, the

lowest one may be called the mezzanine. Balconies are

stacked up on top of a portion of the orchestra seats in

order to reduce the average distance from any one seat

to the front of the stage.

LIGHTING AND SOUND

Many modern theatres have rooms for lighting and

sound in the rear of the auditorium and are often called

the booth. A position for followspots, which are some-

times called front lights, is essential. It is interesting to

note that many sound booths are enclosed in glass to

provide a sound barrier from the auditorium. That is

sometimes okay for sound playback, but it is an awful

place to hear the mix of a show that requires sound

reinforcement through the use of microphones. Mixers

are usually set up in an area cleared of seats in the

rear of the auditorium. Some newer theatres have a

permanent house mix position, which is by far the best

option.

Overhead lighting pipes located in the auditorium

of a theatre are known as front-of-house or FOH posi-

tions. These positions may be laid out in many various

ways, depending mostly on the uses of the theatre and

the architectural features found in it. FOH pipes may

be concealed in soffits, rigged on trusses lowered by

chain motors, or may exist simply as exposed pipes

reachable only by a ladder. Front-of-house positions are

numbered in relation to their proximity to the stage.

The pipe that is closest to the stage is the first FOH.

The next closest will be the second, and so forth. In

some theatres, one or more of the FOH positions may

be called a beam position.

Another popular place for lights in the house of a

theatre is the box boom position. A boom is any vertical

pipe used to hang lights. Box booms are located in the

place where theatre box seats were traditionally placed,

on the side of the auditorium and close to the front of

the stage. This is an excellent lighting angle for side

lights across the front of the stage and is a favorite with

lighting designers.

There are as many different arrangements of FOH

positions as there are theatres that house them. Touring

companies that travel with a lighting package usually

designate two front-of-house locations: box boom and

balcony rail. Once in a particular theatre, the design is

modified somewhat to accommodate the existing road

house positions. Sometimes there is an actual balcony

rail, which is a pipe that has been secured to the front

edge of the first balcony. Or there may be a more tra-

ditional FOH placement, such as a catwalk or a pipe

hanging from the ceiling.

Pipes used to hang lights over the stage are called

electrics. Electrics are also numbered from the front of

the stage, and hence the numbers run backward from

those used for the FOH positions. The most downstage

electric is the first electric, and the next upstage is the

second. You could also consider that all lighting posi-

tions are numbered with the plaster line as a beginning

point.

Some theatres have permanent lighting electrics,

which is to say that the same battens are always used for

that purpose. Consequently these pipes have a perma-

nently attached plugging strip running along the batten

to provide power to the lighting instruments. They are

generally found in theatres that have their own lighting

equipment. Some houses that are strictly for rental

purposes may not have any sort of lighting circuits,

but rather depend upon the touring company to bring

everything in themselves. Many Broadway theatres are

of this type.

Other theatres may use a system of drop boxes that

are moved from one batten to another in order to make

any pipe available into an electric. Drop boxes consist

of a large diameter multicable containing a number of