Thursday Thesaurus - Missed Cues

I thought that today for Thursday Thesaurus I would explore the word cue….mainly because I’ve missed mine on this particular blog post a few time

 Cue -The words or actions at which an actor is expected to deliver a line or a crew member is expected to perform some task. Not to be confused with:

Cue - Long wooden stick that the billiard player holds to hit the cue ball

Kew – Famous English Garden

Or with
Queue - a line of waiting people























Like this one from San Diego during Comic Con

Anyways…where was I? right…theatrical cues

Cues are important to the show because they prompt everything. If you the actor miss a cue, then that might make the lighting and music cues be delayed, effect set changes or just plain confuse the other actors :) So you can see that missing a cue is something that is frowned upon. If you have done theater or seen a performance, was there ever something that happened that you thought (or knew) was a missed cue?

 I remember seeing a show and the actor said a line, and another actor was supposed to some on stage and they were supposed to have a conversation. Except when the first actor said his line the other actor was nowhere to be seen. The actor starting filling time (about 30 seconds) when he grabbed something out of his pocket and acted like it was a cell phone and had the conversation that was supposed to be happening onstage all by himself.

Example: 
Actor 1: Actor 2, I just wanted to let you know I was sorry. (Pause) I am so glad that you accept my apology and I appreciate your kinds words of how much you love me. 

It was awesome

This especially near and dear to my heart since I am currently in a show and there are a lot of cues that depend on me. So forgive me while I go study my script again…

Thursdays Thesaurus: In The Round

Today we take on the term – In The Round
In the round is a type of theater that puts the actors in the center of the theater with the audience on all sides surrounding them. It can also be referred to as an “arena theatre” or “central staging”.

Theatre in the round can be traced back to Greek and roman theatre and can be seen today in the Greek and Italian ancient theatrical ruins. It came back into popularity in the early 1900’s as theater began experimenting with more flexible theatre arrangements.Usually this type of theatre style leads to sets being designed with care so that the audience is not blocked by furniture or scenery. This staging does require the actors to sometimes have their backs to the audience, so it can sometimes be difficult for actors to adapt to if they are more used to traditional theatre arrangements.

If you are in San Diego then you should go to The Old Globe, their Sheryl & Harvey White Theatre is a theatre that is designed for in the round productions. In Los Angeles the Theatre In The Round Players only do productions in this style.

Now I’d like to know, have you seen any shows in the round? How did you like it?

Thursdays Thesaurus: Peppers Ghost

As promised, this Thursdays Thesaurus will explain Peppers Ghost!

Peppers Ghost Optical illusion effect used to make a ghost appear on stage next to an actor. Using a sheet of glass and special lighting techniques, it can make objects seem to appear or disappear, or make one object seem to morph into another. It is named after John Henry Pepper, who first demonstrated the technique in the 1860s.

In order for the illusion to work, the viewer must be able to see into the main room, but not into the hidden mirror room. The edge of the glass may be hidden by a cleverly designed pattern in the floor.

The illusion was first shown at the Royal Polytechnic Institution in London by it’s creator, J.H.Pepper on Christmas Eve, 1862. Following many subsequent events, Charles Dickens used it during readings of The Haunted Man. Several plays were written specially to use the effect around 1863, but the long-term future of the effect was limited by the fact that the ghost couldn't speak.

Even though this illusion may seem like it is restricted in its use in this modern age, then you may be surprised to know that you have probably seen it quite a bit but didn’t know what it was!

Peppers Ghost is used quite a bit at amusement parks in their rides. At Knotts Berry Farm they have a live actor and film projection along with the ghost effect in the Mystery Lodge exhibit but most famously you may know it from the Haunted Mansion and Twilight Tower of Terror at Disneyland Parks (yes, I think that the Haunted Mansion effects count as theater, don’t you?)

Now I want to go to Disneyland, any takers?

Thursday's Thesaurus: Fresnel

Thursdays Thesaurus: Fresnel lens

Fresnel lens: (pronounced 'Fre-nell' sneaky French language and it’s silent letters) A type of lantern which produces an even, soft-edged beam of light through a Fresnel lens. The lens is a series of stepped concentric circles on the front and pebbled on the back and is named after its French inventor, Augustin Jean Fresnel (1788-18270).

When they are used in the theatre it is usually in a metal housing that also holds the reflector, a lamp assembly, and a Fresnel lens. Fresnel instruments usually have an easier way of changing the focal distance between the lamp and the lens. This makes them very flexible to use, and can create narrow and wide beams depending on what is required. The beam is very soft edged and is often used as a wash light for the stage.

Wait….what? another lighting post? Is that what you’re mumbling about? Ok look, I let someone else pick the term this week and they are a techie….so that’s what happened here, but don’t pretend it’s not interesting.

Ok look here’s a picture of it

and you should also know that these lenses are also used in lighthouses because they are so good at all that focusing......

And here’s the guy that invented it - doesn't he look like he was a blast at parties?

Next week: PEPPER's GHOST – (hint, it’s used a lot at Disneyland)