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Rotational Theater

audiences rotate around a ring of stages
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The purpose of the Rotational Theater is to allow for more elaborate stage design and to bring the audience closer to the actors. This is achieved by having both the actors and the audience move to a new stage when there is a scene change. For clarity, physical description of the Rotational Theater has been divided into sections

The Scenes and Stages: Each scene in the play has its own stage. The stages are arranged in a ring so that the stages face outward, sequential scenes are adjacent, and the first and last scenes are adjacent. The stages are all the same size, and all of the scenes take the same amount of time. A circular back stage is shared by all stages.

The Audience Train: A railroad-like track encircles the ring of stages, and upon the track is a train of inward facing audience cars. Each audience car matches up with one stage to form a sound proof mini theater. The number of cars is equal to the number of scenes. The Audience Train can rotate so that any audience car can be matched with any stage, and if one audience car is matched with a stage then so are the rest of the audience cars.

Operation: Theater goers form a line outside of the audience car which is in front of the stage for scene 1. Theater goers move from the line into this audience car. Scene 1 is performed for this audience car. After scene 1 is complete, the audience train rotates so that the audience car that was in front of the scene 1 stage is now in front of the scene two stage. Now a new group of theater goers moves from the line to the audience car in front of scene 1. A new group of actors performs scene 1 while the original group of actors performs scene 2. In this way, each audience car makes a trip around the ring of stages with one group of actors. After an audience car has scene all of the scenes, they exit the audience train, and their group of actors starts the cycle over with scene 1.

GravesWaves, Feb 20 2009


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Annotation:







       Something quite similar to this was done by a friend of mine who worked at the Mermaid Theatre nearly thirty years ago, for the farce 'Noises Off'. Also, in one of the stage productions of 'The Hitch-Hikers' Guide To The Galaxy', the audience seats were placed on an air cushion which was pushed around the theatre.
nineteenthly, Feb 20 2009
  

       Didn't Tussauds' Rock Circus in London used to do something similar to this?   

       sp. "Rotational"
coprocephalous, Feb 20 2009
  

       Does this require sound-proof walls between the stages, that must marry up somehow with the sound-proof ends of the carriages, so as to form these sound-proof mini-theatres?
pertinax, Feb 20 2009
  

       //Something quite similar to this was done by a friend of mine who worked at the Mermaid Theatre nearly thirty years ago, for the farce 'Noises Off'.//   

       Frontstage and backstage seating areas? That's what a theater in Batavia IL did for that show.
supercat, Feb 20 2009
  

       welcome to the halfbakery--- make it a roller coaster and I'll give it a bun!
xandram, Feb 20 2009
  

       //does this require sound-proof walls between the stages, that must marry up somehow with the sound-proof ends of the carriages...?//   

       Yes, some kind of soundproofing is required, but adjacent stages could have a gap to aid in the sound isolation.   

       This idea may sound like some kind of Disney World type attraction, but please take a minute to consider what it would be like to be in the audience: The audience is small- only about three rows deep. You can see every detail of the stage. The actors are only 10'-20' away from you, so you can see all of their expressions. Because of their close proximity to the audience, the actors do not need to over act; they can be speak naturally without microphones. No sound system is required, and no elaborate lighting is required. Each scene would have totally different scenery, and since the scenery never has to move there is no limit to how detailed it can be. The Rotational theater can run continuously all day long unlike traditional theaters. The Rotational Theater would also create more jobs for actors since there needs to be as many casts as there are scenes in the play for continuous running. This idea was meant fix the problems with traditional theater.
GravesWaves, Feb 20 2009
  

       and non-primary scenes being played out on the non-focus stages [+]
FlyingToaster, Feb 21 2009
  

       I like it now that I've had my motion sickness medication ;-)
blissmiss, Feb 21 2009
  


 

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