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Stage Management Glossary
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Special Thanks to the Columbia Stage Management MFA Class of 2016 and Professor Bonnie Panson For Collaborating to Create this Glossary
ITEM |
DEFINITION | |
|---|---|---|
| THEATER - THE BUILDING | ||
| Apron | The area of the stage in front of the procenium | |
| Balcony | The area of the audience viewing from the second floor of the theatre | |
| Deck | The stage floor | |
| Downstage | The part of the stage nearest to the audience | |
| Flies | The area above the stage where scenic or lighting instruments are hoisted to be out of the audience's view | |
| Front of House (FOH) | The area from the entrance of the theatre to the procenium arch | |
| Leg | A long and narrow drape hung to mask backstage | |
| Orchesta | The area of audience seating nearest the stage | |
| Pit | The area where the orchestras sits, typically sunken below the front of the stage | |
| Procenium Arch | The arch that frames the stage from the audience's perspective | |
| Rake | The angle of incline from downstage to upstage | |
| Upstage | The area of the stage furtherst away from the audience | |
| Wings | The area directly off of the stage | |
| THEATER - THE PERSONNEL | ||
| A1 | The lead crewmember of the audio department who mixes the show during performance and maintains it's aural consistency | |
| A2 | The assistant to the lead crewmember of the audio department who maintains all mics and equipment backstage | |
| Artistic Director | In not-for-profit theatre companies, the person that has final decision making on the entire season and that maintains the company's mission statement | |
| Carpenter | The crewmembers that handle all scenery | |
| Company Manager | The person that cares for the day-to-day needs of the entire company on behalf of the general manager and producer, particularly in terms of contracts, travel, and ammentieis | |
| Conductor | The leader of the orchestra | |
| Choreographer | The creator of the dances in a show | |
| Dance Arranger | Works closely with the choreographer to write dance music based on composers themes. | |
| Dance Captain | The cast member that is responsible for helping teach, maintain, and noting the show's choreography. | |
| Designer | The person who designs a specific element of the show, i.e. set, props, costumes, lights, sound, projection, etc. | |
| Director | The person leading the entire production towards a their vision | |
| Dresser | The crewmembers that assist the actors change costumes during the show | |
| Electrician | The crewmembers that handle all light equipment | |
| General Manager (GM) | The person or persons that handle the show's budget by negotiating contracts, interfacing with investors, and supervising marketing and ticket sales | |
| Mixer | The crewmember that is listening to the performance and adjusting the volume outputs of each audio source | |
| Orchestra | The musicians who plays at the performance | |
| Producer | The person with final say on creative and financial production decisions | |
| Production Manager (PM) | The person that creates the first production budget and oversees the build and load-in of all production elements | |
| Production Stage Manager (PSM) | The lead stage manager who delegates all stage management tasks | |
| Run Crew | The generic name for all crewmembers working during a particular show | |
| TOOLS AND TACTICS | ||
| Allen Wrench / Hex Key | A hexagonal cross-section used to drive bolts and screws that have a hexagonal socket. Commonly used to lock/unlock push bar doors | |
| Block and Tackle | A pulley system consisting of single continuous rope to transmit a tension force around one or more pulleys to lift or move a heavy load. | |
| Cable | A rope made of wires | |
| Carabineer | A metal loop with a spring-loaded gate used to quickly and reversibly connect components, most notably in safety-critical systems. Commonly used for fall protection | |
| Double Purchase | 1:2 weight relationship | |
| Fiber Optic Cable | A rope of wires, conataining one of more optical fibers | |
| Genie Lift | A machine used to lift people and small items straight upwards | |
| Lash | An arrangement of rope wire or webbing with linking device used to secure and fasten two or more items together in a somewhat rigid manner | |
| Lever | A rigid bar resting on a pivot, used to help move a heavy or firmly fixed load with one end when pressure is applied to the other. | |
| Loose Pin Hinge | A hinge with two plates that are separated by a removable pin. | |
| Piano Hinge | A hinge that has a thin pin joint and extends along the full length of the part to be moved. | |
| PSI | The pound per pound-force per square inch: lbf/in^2 | |
| PVC | A synthetic plastic polymer comes in two basic forms: rigid (used in construction for pipe, windows, doors) and flexible (plumbing, electrical cable insulation, imitation leather, rubber replacement) | |
| Pneumatics | Compressed air power. An electrical powered compressor compresses gas (air, nitrogen, oxygen, etc.), and converts that stored energy into force | |
| Scissor Lift | A machine that raises, lowers, and position materials and personnel by the closing or opening of crossed supports pivoted - like the two halves of a pair of scissors | |
| Standard Counterweight | 1:1 weight relationship | |
| Relay | An electrically operated switch | |
| Wire | A thin, flexible metal rod | |
| TECHNOLOGY | ||
| Analog | A wave is recorded or used in its original form | |
| Bandwidth | The maximum amount of data a network can transfer. | |
| Binary | A numeral system which represents numeric values using only two symbols (Usually 0 and 1) | |
| Digital | An analog wave is sampled and turned into numbers stored in a device | |
| Encoder | A device, circuit, transducer, software program, algorithm or person that converts information from one format or code to another, for the purposes of standardization, speed, secrecy, security or compressions. | |
| Keyboard Video Mouse (KVM) | A device that allows the user to operate multiple computers at once | |
| LASER | Stands for: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. A device that generates an intense beam of coherent monochromatic light | |
| Fire Wire | Apple Computer's version of a standard, IEEE 1394, High Performance Serial Bus, for connecting devices to your personal computer. FireWire provides a single plug-and-socket connection on which up to 63 devices can be attached with data transfer speeds up to 400 Mbps (megabits per second). | |
| Network | When one or more compute is connected, a network is created. | |
| Network Communications | Connected devices speaking to one another | |
| SCENIC | ||
| A Vista | When changing the scenery in view of the audience | |
| Apple Box | Versatile wooden crates used as unseen, but needed scenic pieces | |
| Border | A short drape hung to mask visible flies | |
| Commando Cloth / Duvetyn | A versatile and durable drapery fabric. Commonly used as black masking fabric, as it is most economical choice. | |
| Cyclorama (Cyc) | A large piece of white fabric hung on a curved pipe against the back wall of a theatre that can be projected on | |
| Dry Ice | A cold, dense white mist produced by solid carbon dioxide in air, used for theatrical effects. Should not have direct contact with skin. | |
| Fire Curtain | A fire-proof curtain that may be lowered in front of the house curtain in the case of fire | |
| Escape Stairs | AKA Carry-Off. A set of stairs out of the view of the audience that provides actors access to the set | |
| Practical | A scenic elements that works on stage | |
| Scrim | A theatrical gauze curtain that when lit from the front is opaque and when lit from the back is transparent | |
| Soft Goods | A term for all curtains and drops | |
| COSTUME | ||
| Fitting | An appointment for an actor to try on their costumes | |
| Quick Change | A costume change that occurs during a performance that must be completed in the short amount of time between an actor's exit and re-entrance | |
| AUTOMATION | ||
| Auto-Fly (AF)* | Automation that raises and lowers scenery into the audience's view (*note, same abbreviation as Autofollow) | |
| Auto-Deck (AD) | Automation that moves scenic pieces that are in a track on the deck. | |
| Animatronics | The use of anatomy, robotics, mechatronics, and puppetry to create life-like robots | |
| Dog | A low-friction piece of equipment that can accept a knife being slid into it from the top | |
| E-Stop | Emergency Stop Button | |
| Effect | A piece of scenery that can move on a track | |
| Elevator | A platform that raises and lowers things | |
| Hydraulics | Pressurized Liquid Power | |
| Jogging | A function that allows you to determine and fine-tune the motor stop position. | |
| Knife | A removable piece of metal that attaches to the scenery and into the dog through a narrow slit cut into the deck | |
| Limit | As far as the machine is able to move in either direction. | |
| Pneumatics | Compressed air power. An electrical powered compressor compresses gas (air, nitrogen, oxygen, etc), and converts that stored energy into force | |
| Show Control | The use of automation technology to link together and operate multiple entertainment control systems in a coordinated manner. | |
| Sunroof / Sloat | A 'sliding, lifting, opening, automated trap' on the floor of a stage that opens to allow things to move between the deck and the basement | |
| Target | The position at the end of a move | |
| Track | Rails in the stage floor or stage deck along which scenery can be moved | |
| Winch | A hauling and lifting device powered by a crank or motor | |
| LIGHTING | ||
| Autofollow (AF)* | When one cue is programmed to automatically follow the cue preceding it
(*note, same abbreviation as Auto-Fly) | |
| Batten / Pipe | A metal tube used to hang lighting instruments on | |
| Bounce Drop | A canvas or muslin drop, unpainted, used to "bounce" light onto back of a scrim | |
| Boom | A vertical pipe on the edge of the deck used to hang lighting instruments | |
| Bump | An instant cue change | |
| Cheat | To move a light slightly to avoid unwanted light spill | |
| Dead Hung | When an instrument is permanently mounted above the stage | |
| Dimmer | A devices used to lower the brightness of a light | |
| DMX512-A | A digital multiplex cable that links controllers to dimmers and special effects devices | |
| Gel | A thin sheet of plastic used to color light | |
| Ghost Light | The light left on in the theatre after everyone leaves | |
| Gobos | A physical stencil or template slotted placed in front of a lighting source, used to control the shape of emitted light | |
| Followspot (FS) | A crewmember run spotlight that follows and focuses on a specific character | |
| Light Ladder | A metal ladder used to hang lighting instruments | |
| Pan | When moving a lighting instrument on the horizontal plane (opposite "tilt") | |
| Parallel Circuit | An electricity connection with multiple paths - if one part of the chain goes out, the others stay on. | |
| Pin Spot | A spotlight focused on a small area, i.e. an actor's head | |
| Series Circuit | An electiricy connection through one long chain - if one part of the chain goes out, all parts go out. | |
| Tilt | When moving a lighting instrument on the vertical plane. (opposite "pan") | |
| SOUND | ||
| Click track | A click track is a series of audio cues used to synchronize sound recordings, sometimes for synchronization to a moving image | |
| Fair Use | The doctrine that explains that a copyright may be infringed upon for the purpose of news, education, criticism, and research | |
| Feedback | An unpleasant sound that occurs when a microphone picks up the output of a speaker and re-amplifies it | |
| Phone Connector | 1/4" cable that connects to most audio devices | |
| RCA Cable | A two-wire audio connector | |
| XLR Cable | A commonly used cable for connecting microphones to sound systems | |
| VIDEO | ||
| Key Frame | The frames that define the starting and ending points of each movement in a story | |
| MPTE Timecode | A system that assigns numeric codes at regular intervals to faciliate percise timing synchronization | |
| Render | The process of combining all video elements into a single digital frame | |
| Zoom | A camera shot that changes smoothly from a long shot to a close-up, or vice versa | |
| MUSIC | ||
| Bar / Measure | A segment of time defined by a given number of beats, each of which are assigned a particular note value. Dividing music into bars provides regular reference points to pinpoint locations within a piece of music. | |
| Bass Clef | The lower half of a bar of music, containing all notes below middle C | |
| Time Signature | A fraction that informs how many beats are in each measure of music. | |
| Treble Clef | Music - the high part. The pretty sign at the start of the top staff that tell the reader their reading the higher line or the 'treble clef.' | |
| DANCE & OPERA | ||
| Marley | A type of portable dance floor consisting of thin rubberized sheets | |
| Physical Therapy | A service provided to treat injuries with physical treatments like massage, heat, and exercise. | |
| Rosin | A solid resin used by dancers (on feet, shoes, and hands) to prevent slippage. | |
| Supernumerary | An "extra" in a ballet or opera, typically used to fill out crowd scenes | |