There are many things to consider when taking a piece of drama from page to stage, or performing a scene you’ve devised yourself. Choices you make about the way to play the scene are called the interpretation. ‘Staging’ doesn’t just mean the set or stage itself; it’s everything you do onstage to bring the drama to life.
1. Relationship with the audience
While the relationships onstage between characters are important, so is the relationship and interaction between actors and audience. Even if your work is naturalistic and the audience are observers of the action, their inclusion is fundamental to the success of your work. Without an audience there’s no theatre.
2. The fourth wall
The fourth wall is like an invisible screen between actors and audience. Imagine the stage as a box with one side open where the audience sit. Work where the audience are passive observers is said to keep the fourth wall intact. There’s no direct contact between actors and audience.
In work where the audience are directly addressed or clear eye contact is made between actors and audience, the fourth wall is broken. The audience are clearly included in the drama and are less removed from events onstage.
Your choice of whether or not to have a fourth wall in your work will influence the spatial relationships between audience and actors and the type of stage you choose.
3. Stage types
Think about the experience you want your audience to have. Do you want them to feel part of the drama and in the midst of the action, or do you want them distant and observing? Where the audience sit in relation to one another is very important. Being able to make eye contact with other audience members creates a sense of shared experience.
The type of stage you choose for your work is vitally important as it will affect the way you use the space available to you in performance.
Remember you can also have ‘informal’ stages outside the theatre and set your scene in an unusual location such as a forest or a car park. How would this make the audience feel?
4. Performing in different stage spaces
Whatever stage shape you choose, you must use the space effectively. Stillness can be very powerful, but if your work is too static you could lose your audience’s interest. When staging work you must consider what the audience see and the sight lines. Make sure that wherever the audience are sitting they can see what’s going on.
If you decide to stage work in the round or in traverse, movement through the scene is particularly important. At any one time some actors will have their backs to the audience and if the action remains still for too long, the audience will be deprived of important facial expressions and gestures. There needs to be plenty of movement throughout so that the audience all get a fair share of what is happening onstage.
Decisions about where actors enter, exit and stand on the stage is called blocking. Blocking needs to be carefully considered so that the space is used well and everybody can see. For example, if you had a large playing space but had chosen to perform upstage, cramped in a corner then this might not create the most interesting visual picture for the audience.
Blocking is also important because if an actor has to turn upstage (away from the audience) to address another actor, their performance might be lost or its power diminished. To decide when and where characters move, you must analyse the script or scene you’ve devised in detail.
Look for any clear changes of thought or motivation, which are often accompanied by movement. A sudden realisation might make a character rise excitedly from their chair and start pacing about.
Character relationships will also influence movement onstage. If one character is in agreement with another they may move closer but if they were feeling uncomfortable they might choose to move away. The space between performers and the message it conveys to the audience is called proxemics. Proxemics or ‘use of space’ can make a big difference to how the audience interpret the scene.
5. Power points and levels
Some parts of the stage are more ‘powerful’ in terms of the audience’s focus than others. For example, downstage centre (in the middle near the audience) is a more prominent position than upstage right at the back of the playing area. These are known as power points. Consider where you want the audience’s focus when you decide where the actors should stand onstage.
Levels can also affect the audience’s perception of the status or importance of a character in the scene. This is known as status placement. If a weaker character is sitting in a chair while a stronger character stands above them, their relationship is mirrored in the levels they use.
6. The aim of your work
When interpreting and staging a scene, you must have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and the effect you wish to have upon the audience. Do you want the audience to be moved, shocked, entertained or educated? To do this you should consider the importance of the scene within the work as a whole. If it’s part of a slow build in tension towards a climax later in the play, then it would be foolish to make it too heightened or urgent in pace. This will leave you nowhere to go.
Looking at the function of the scene in its wider context will help you make interpretative decisions about pace and mood. Consider if your work has a clear message you want the audience to understand and how you'll bring this out for them. Perhaps there is another aim, such as building empathy with a key character, communicating important information about plot or making the audience laugh.
Keep your intentions for each scene at the front of your mind when staging work.
7. Style and interpretation
If you’re creating work in the style of a certain theatre practitioner or genre, this will affect your staging of the scene. For example, the work of the theatre maker Jerry Grotowski didn’t rely upon any set, lights or costume to communicate ideas. His focus was the actor so the performers created the set themselves with their own bodies.
In total contrast to this, Stanislavski believed in recreating real life and truth onstage with authenticity. This is naturalism where the work is as close to real life as possible on the stage, or a stage truth. Lights will help to denote time of day and set and costume need to be as realistic and accurate as possible.
The style of your piece will influence the way you choose to use lights, sound, costume and set. If you’re devising work from a script, consider the playwright’s chosen style and whether you should use the drama medium in an abstract or representational way or whether your interpretation should be more naturalistic.
8. Pace and dynamics
To stage a scene successfully you must consider its rhythm and dynamics. Just like a piece of music every scene has a journey and character of its own. There are moments where tension and atmosphere build, moments of activity, stillness, pauses and sections of higher and lower energy.
Examine your text or the structure of the scene you have created in detail. Break it down into its natural segments or ‘units’ of action. Are there changes in pace or energy? How might you be able to create these?
Consider where dialogue speeds up, where it slows down and which character is driving the narrative and action at any given moment in the work. Contrast makes drama interesting, so if the pace has been picking up and the scene moving towards its climax at breakneck speed, a long pause or moment of stillness after the event can be very powerful.