Week 3: "Visual Perception in Acting: Understanding the Stage"
Learning to See: The Games of Visual Perception
Here we consider one of the most important aspects of stage direction and the capabilities of the director: How well do you see? Learning to see — learning to observe meticulously and perceptively—is a skill the young director must acquire early in order to help him make images that can excite and move audiences. It is not enough to give casual attention to what an actor wears, or the place he tells the story, or how he moves around the stage in relation to other actors.
A groundplan is both a representation of the given circumstances and a tension device for discovering and illustrating the dramatic action of a play in specific terms of space and of the necessary obstacles that break up that space. No matter what sort of stage you may be working on—proscenium, arena, thrust—a groundplan is still the basic tool in director-actor communication because all the other tools are dependent on it and flow naturally out of it.
If you can master the concept of the groundplan as a tool for communication, you will be able to see how the other tools can also work for you.
A director must always think in three-dimensional terms: Stage space is a cube, not a flat rectangle on the floor. Using this point of view, the director will see the vertical as well as the horizontal aspects of the design, and can thus better visualize how it’s possible to suggest to actors the feelings and facts about the given circumstances.
In composing a play, a dramatist will choose a symbolic place for the dramatic action because such places exert a particular force on the action itself; that is, the playwright feels the pressure and significance of the place. A director must reconstruct this feeling from the dramatic action (not from a physical description the author may have inserted) as nearly as possible, for what must be found is the appropriate visual and spatial container, and, as appropriate, obstacle course for that action.
Obstacle course is used here because an actor until he is much advanced, can sense actions much more quickly and keenly with a physical obstacle between him and the opposing force represented in another character than he can when there is no obstacle.
A table, sofa, or chair between two actors gives them both something to struggle over, something that prevents them from getting together. Differences in levels—steps, platforms, and so on—do something similar, because one character can feel from such juxtapositions his dominance or lack of dominance over another character.
From this, it should be obvious that a director must search for the appropriate space for the play she is producing. In a Shakespeare play, the specific location may be achieved through simple means: a passing reference in the text, some emblematic device, perhaps a drapery, or a throne or other piece of furniture that identifies where the scene is happening.
” Scenes that happen “nowhere” or “anywhere” are going to make it vastly more difficult for the actors to achieve the level of specificity that’s in the scene or the play.
The given circumstances will tell the director whether that space is large or small; dark or light; frequently interrupted by objects or only occasionally so; whether it has strong vertical possibilities (everything from platforms to balconies) or primarily horizontal possibilities (low-ceilinged, hugging the floor); and so on.
The detailing of the space and the objects can be done by a designer who can greatly intensify the visual effect. But unless the architecture of a groundplan is well-conceived in terms of the dramatic action, not only will the director have lost basic possibilities for communication with the actors, but the effectiveness of all the other visual tools for director-actor communication that depend on it will also have been reduced.
Acting Areas
The groundplan’s potential power to illustrate can be measured by defining all the acting areas. If any groundplan has less than five acting areas, it means that the number of obstacles has been so reduced that the possibilities for tension are very limited. Learn this plan for mapping out the sit-down areas because it is an effective safeguard in planning high-tension groundplans. A groundplan conceived on this principle of multiple acting areas will suggest all sorts of illustrative possibilities to actors because of its built-in tension, and you will find that it will become a quick and effective device for communication.
Note in Figure 2 how each area is delineated by circling two sitting positions at least six feet apart, and how the merits of the groundplan as a whole can be tested by showing all of the available areas in one drawing (as in Figure 3). Six areas are delineated in Figure 3, but there are at least two or three more not shown because the lines would overlap too much and thus would obscure the drawing as an example. Using the sitting-down plan to estimate the number of acting areas, and thus the flexibility of the groundplan, does not imply that standing positions are not constantly used in very effective ways. In fact, it implies quite the contrary. But standing positions will be all the more effective when enough obstacles have been placed in the room to keep the characters at some distance from one another. Each of the obstacles also acts as a physical support to any actor who stands near it, for it will emphasize the weight and mass of the actor’s body. If any groundplan has less than five acting areas, it means that the number of obstacles has been so reduced that the possibilities for tension are very limited.
Tension Arrangements
A multiple-area groundplan always has high tension values because the possibilities for arranging furniture can be extensive. Here are some specific suggestions for creating tension values:
1. Place your primary objects in a space free of the walls so that actors can move easily around them (see Figure 4).
2. Work on the diagonal principle whenever possible because diagonals create more
tension than objects parallel to the proscenium line. (Note the direction of the long arrows in Figure 5.)
3. Place objects in contrasting positions that can create tension by their oppositional force. (Note the short arrows in Figures 4 and 5 that show the directions the sitting positions face and consequently, the oppositional forces they create.)
4. Note that walls create tension when they are broken up with jogs and diagonals (Figure
5. because they not only create architectural strength and interest but also cut into and compress the action space.
Groundplan on the Proscenium Stage
Although creating strong tension values is absolutely essential, you must also arrange the groundplan in accordance with the primary convention of the proscenium stage, the convention that places the audience in front of the stage within an arc of 60 to 70 degrees. This arrangement implies that some rules come into force in order to help the audience see and hear better.
• Open the side walls to the audience. Side walls are usually raked to open up the upstage corners of a setting (see Figures 6A and 6B), although walls perpendicular to the proscenium line (see Figure 6C) can work if the audience’s seating angle to the stage is less than 70 degrees and if entrances are not placed in upstage corner positions. You must never think of the upstage corners as dead areas, for you will need every possible square inch of space to keep your compositions interesting, especially in one-set plays where the action is carried on for two to three hours. Always consider the sight lines in composing a groundplan.
• Open the set properties (furniture) to the audience. The general rule thus requires that all much-used furniture pieces be placed prominently, relatively far downstage and toward centre stage. The illusion of reality is thus preserved, although the room is anything but real. Try to master the conventions of the proscenium stage, which audiences have absorbed to such a degree that these stage arrangements seem real when actually they are not. After you master this, there will be plenty of opportunities to experiment with these conventions. The illusion of reality is thus preserved, although the room is anything but real. Do not think, then, that you will help an actor by placing a chair on the curtain line facing upstage, for you will merely be blocking the audience’s view of the stage and forcing the actor, if he sits in the chair, to talk upstage, thus cutting off the audience’s hearing as well (see Figure 7). Such placement does not in any way create more reality but instead merely confuses an audience.
• Pin the downstage corners of the groundplan to the rest of the plan. This arrangement will provide a downstage foreground to contrast with midground and background, thus tying the groundplan together and intensifying the three-dimensional quality of the staging. This rule is very important because the furniture will help frame the actors in all the positions they take on the stage (see Figure 8).
Flexibility, Testing, and Improvisation
As a rule, you shall make not just one groundplan, but several, and then remake them. Because the groundplan is the basis for all the other visual tools, it must be the best possible one you can devise. Therefore, your personal flexibility in this regard is absolutely essential; you must always be ready to discard the groundplan that does not work and start over again, rebuilding on what you have discovered. Making a good groundplan always involves improvisation, for you are trying to project its uses through your own imagination.
One way to approach making a groundplan is to have some specific ideas in mind, and then have the actors help you discover the best possible arrangement. They will enjoy this game of looking for fresh ways of illustrating, and such play will help them better understand the given circumstances. Remember: A groundplan is only as good as its potential to arouse the imagination of the actors who will use it. They must learn to live in it and to exploit its every possibility. If you are to help them fly, you must help them find the flying machine that will get them off the ground. Once again: make, test, remake, improvise; make, test, remake, improvise; and so on.
Tasks Assignment
TASK 1:
In previous steps, you analyzed the play very well, and now have the vision of the acts and events in the play, also you have the list of all props and stage directions.
Now you are ready for your ground/stage plan.
1. On the basis of the play, design a groundplan for the main events of the play or for the whole act (it may be several groundplans). Decide upon an initial diagram for the location of the doors, windows, furniture, and hand props. You may hand-drawn it or do it digitally.
Then, answer the following questions about the groundplan:
Do you have an obstacle course?
Is it a no-room? How many acting areas does it contain?
What is tension creating in the plan? How ingenious is it?
On the Internet, try to find groundplans created by others for the same play as your, and compare your groundplan with those groundplans. Evaluate the differences carefully.
2. Try to set up a groundplan on the room floor by using whatever furniture is available. Think of its effectiveness, if you feel that changes must be done to alter the plan. Think if such a location was your space ask yourself, “If this were my room, where would I as the character spend most of the time?” and “In what area would I not spend much time or avoid for any reason?”
If actors would do improvisation in this setting, what did the plan suggest to the improvisers? What would you, as a director, suggest to the improvisors to help their imaginations find different uses of the plan?
Send your groundplans and reflections to the Institute.
Format: pdf/docx
Deadline: December 12, 2025
Studying Materials
Designing for the Theatre (2) (p.63-65; 77-81)
