STAGE AND AUDIENCE: Constructing relations and opportunities

This chapter talks about the stage and audience space, through the lens of theatre architecture and the conventions that are associated with dominant types, and through alternative propositions to the conventions of stage-audience relations through both unbuilt speculative works and built works. It also deals with several examples in which conventions of stage, auditorium, or the relation between them, were critically re-interpreted through designs for theatre buildings or the contribution of the architecture to particular performances. As such the chapter is concerned with how the architecture of stage and auditorium contributes in a leading or supporting role to the event. It is concerned with scenographic designing that consciously works with and pushes up against the conventions of theatre architecture types. It is concerned with taking advantage of what a work of theatre architecture has to offer to augmenting consciousness of the performance with the aim of creating a truly eventful spatial experience.