Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Stage Design and all that good jazz

Sitting in the audience of the Portland Center Stage, I realized that the seating was so much more cramped rather than Louise 1st and Main. You could hear everyone who was talking, coughing, and moving around. the stage was a Proscenium Arch, and it had a nice view for the entire show I thought. I thought that Frost/Nixon turned out well on this stage all in all.
Since it was the Gerding Theater, I was kind of dissapointed that the actors themselves weren't on microphones. Because there were alot of people, it was really difficult to hear the actors from so far back. Maybe that was the whole purpose, so we as an audience would have to pay real close attention to the dialogue to understand the play.
As for myself, I prefer watching productions on this stage. It's bigger and livelier, and has more room for the many different effects of stage designs. One thing I thought that they could have done was put in an intermission. Sitting there for two and almost a half hours straight through was really tough on my own part towards lack of attention span.
Although the Keller Auditorium is one of my all time favorite theatre spaces, The Gerding Theater at Portland Center Stage comes in a close second in my own book. I think its because of the formality in the structure, stage, and audiences themselves that intrigue me. I enjoyed dressing up to go see this play, and I am excited to see more pieces there in the future.

~Nici Benois~

3 comments:

Emily Adele said...

I was REALLY crammed in there for sure! It didn't help that it was basically a full house. I actually liked that there weren't mics. Even at a professional theatre thee are sound issues...

playwright said...

I really did not have any trouble hearing the actors, I think they projected well. Nancy

Anonymous said...

Yeah, i was in the very back of the audience. however, I could hear them all. They did a great job! A bit of the time, I couldn't hear them, or it was a bit mumbled. They did a great job though. I agree, the stage space was great!