Stage management in the context of Lighting design

Stagecraft is a technical aspect of theatrical, film, and video production. It includes constructing and rigging scenery; hanging and focusing of lighting; design and procurement of costumes; make-up; stage management; audio engineering; and procurement of props. Stagecraft is distinct from the wider umbrella term of scenography. Considered a technical rather than an artistic field, it is primarily the practical implementation of a scenic designer's artistic vision.

In its most basic form, stagecraft may be executed by a single person (often the stage manager of a smaller production) who arranges all scenery, costumes, lighting, and sound, and organizes the cast. Regional theaters and larger community theaters will generally have a technical director and a complement of designers, each of whom has a direct hand in their respective designs.Within significantly larger productions, for example a modern Broadway show, effectively bringing a show to opening night requires the work of skilled carpenters, painters, electricians, stagehands, stitchers, wigmakers, and the like. Modern stagecraft is highly technical and specialized: it comprises many sub-disciplines and a vast trove of history and tradition.

In theatre, a lighting designer (or LD) works with the director, choreographer, set designer, costume designer, and sound designer to create the lighting, atmosphere, and time of day for the production in response to the text while keeping in mind issues of visibility, safety, and cost. The LD also works closely with the stage manager or show control programming, if show control systems are used in that production. Outside stage lighting, the job of a lighting designer can be much more diverse, and they can be found working on rock and pop tours, corporate launches, art installations, or lighting effects at sporting events.

In a theatre, the prompt corner or prompt box is the place where the prompter—usually the stage manager in the US or deputy stage manager in the UK—stands in order to coordinate the performance and to remind performers of their lines when required. It is traditionally located at stage left.

The road crew (also known as roadies) are the support personnel who travel with an artist or band on tour, usually in sleeper buses, and handle every part of the concert productions except actually performing the music with the musicians. This catch-all term covers many people: tour managers, production managers, stage managers, front of house and monitor engineers, lighting directors, lighting designers, lighting techs, guitar techs, bass techs, drum techs, keyboard techs, pyrotechnicians, security/bodyguards, truck drivers, merchandise crew, and caterers, among others.

A list of theater terms, and brief descriptions, listed in alphabetical order.

• Act: A division of a play, may be further broken down into "scenes". Also, what the performers do on-stage.
• Ad-lib: When a performer improvises line on-stage. Derived from ad libitum (Latin).
• Aisle: An open space amongst seating for passage.
• Alternate: see Understudy.
• Amphitheater: an open-air theater, with seats rising in curved rows.
• Angel: An individual or organization which provides financial support for a production.
• Apron: The front area of the stage, nearest the audience; the portion of the stage in front of proscenium arch.
• Aside: A line spoken by an actor/actress directly to the audience, unheard by the other performers on-stage.
• Assistant director: Works very closely with the director and with the cast. They will gather research on the production, help keep the production true to the director's vision and help lead rehearsals should the director not be able to attend.
• Assistant stage manager: Assists the production stage manager, with everything from taping floor plan marking to making sure that everyone has a copy of the script. They also make sure that the set has the needed props. Before a rehearsal the assistant stage manager helps the stage manager make sure everything is ready. At the end of rehearsal the assistant stage manager along with the stage manager will make sure that the space is locked up. Often shortened to ASM.
• Audition: The activity where actors/actresses perform for the director or casting director, in order to obtain roles in a production.
• Auditorium: The portion of a theater which contains the audience seating.
• Avant-garde: Experimental or innovative works or people, derived from the French.
• Balcony: An elevated portion of seating in the back of the auditorium.
• Curtain Call: At the end of a live performance the cast will come out and do a bow while the audience applauds.
• Doubling: When an actor plays more than one character in a production. Most times this is done for economical reasons but it can be that because an actor would like to take on more than one role in the performance.
• Receiving house: (sometimes called a roadhouse) a theatre which does not produce its own repertoire but instead receives touring theatre companies, usually for a brief period such as three nights or an entire week. The incoming company may receive a share of the box office takings or a minimum guaranteed payment. West End theatres in London and most Broadway theatres in New York are also receiving houses, as the venue solely provides facilities to the incoming show even though the production may stay for many years. Theatres which produce their own shows are known as producing houses, and some regional theatres will do both.
• Understudy: A person who learns the part of a specific character or characters. Should the performer who is cast in those roles be unable to perform their part due for any reason (e.g. illness, injury etc.), the understudy will step in and perform the role. Also known as an Alternate.

Sir Augustus Henry Glossop Harris (18 March 1852 – 22 June 1896) was a British actor, impresario, and dramatist, a dominant figure in the West End theatre of the 1880s and 1890s.

Born into a theatrical family, Harris briefly pursued a commercial career before becoming an actor and subsequently a stage-manager. At the age of 27 he became the lessee of the large Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where he mounted popular melodramas and annual pantomimes on a grand and spectacular scale. The pantomimes featured leading music hall stars such as Dan Leno, Marie Lloyd, Little Tich and Vesta Tilley. The profits from these productions subsidised his opera seasons, equally lavish, starrily cast and with an innovative repertoire. He presented the first British production of Die Meistersinger and the first production anywhere outside Germany of Tristan und Isolde, and revitalised the staging of established classics.

The prompter (sometimes prompt) in a theatre is a person who prompts or cues actors when they forget their lines or neglect to move on the stage to where they are supposed to be situated. The role of the souffleur, or prompter, reaches back to the medieval theatre, but has disappeared in countries like Britain, the United States, France, and Italy. In these places, actors are expected to assist each other in case they forget their lines. However, in Germany and central Europe, the job of the prompter is still very much alive and integral to the repertory system. This is because multiple plays are performed in rotation each week, making it challenging for actors to memorise all their lines.

In theatres without prompters, their role is undertaken by the stage manager, who will have a copy of the script called the prompt book. This is the most definitive version of the script for any one performance, and will contain details of all cues, with their precise timings with respect to the action on stage. This allows the prompt to direct lighting, sound, flying effects and scene changes during a show. The prompt book also often contains blocking notes, so that the prompt is always aware of the intended positions and movements of all the actors on stage at any given time.