Quarenghi Longitudinal section of the Hermitage Theatre (cropped)

A rake or raked stage is a theatre stage that slopes upwards, away from the

audience An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature (in which they are called "readers"), theatre, music (in which they are called "listeners"), video games (in which they are called "players"), o ...

. Such a design was typical of English

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...

in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

and early Modern era, and improves the view and sound for spectators. It also helps with the illusion of perspective: when features of the scenery are made to align with a notional

vanishing point A vanishing point is a point on the image plane of a perspective drawing where the two-dimensional perspective projections of mutually parallel lines in three-dimensional space appear to converge. When the set of parallel lines is perpendicul ...

beyond the rear of the stage, the rake supports the illusion. These elements of scenery are termed ''raking pieces''. Raked seating refers to seating which is positioned on an upwards slope away from the stage, in order to give those in the audience at the back a better view than if the seats were all on the same level.

Calculating incline

The slope of the rake is measured by the number of horizontal units it takes for one vertical unit measured in the direction of the

slope In mathematics, the slope or gradient of a line is a number that describes both the ''direction'' and the ''steepness'' of the line. Slope is often denoted by the letter ''m''; there is no clear answer to the question why the letter ''m'' is use ...

, or by the equivalent percentage. A rake of one horizontal unit to one vertical unit (1 in 1) would give an angle of 45° from the horizontal. Rakes of 1 in 18 (5.56%) to 1 in 48 (2.08%) were more common. Converting the rake ratio to an angle requires the application of some basic trigonometry. The angle in degrees = arctan(vertical/horizontal), where "vertical" is the vertical rise in distance and "horizontal" is the horizontal distance over which this rise occurs. For example, for a rake of 1:18, the corresponding angle is arctan(1/18) = 3.18°.

History

Theatres constructed after the beginning of the 20th century feature a raked audience section. This change back to the method of construction seen in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and Roman theaters (flat stage and terraced audience) was effected due to the difficulty encountered when one tries to walk across a sloped surface, which had resulted in unnatural movement patterns to avoid the appearance of limping caused by the non-level surface. Raked stages can still be seen in some

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

, Broadway and West End productions, where a temporary raked acting surface is built over a theatre's permanent flat stage. Creating a raked stage can also assist set designs which are designed with forced perspective.

Upstaging

On a raked stage an actor who is farther from the audience is higher than an actor who is closer to the audience. This led to the theatre positions "upstage" and "downstage", meaning, respectively, farther from or closer to the audience. The term " upstaging" refers to one actor moving to a more elevated position on the rake (stage), causing the upstaged actor (who stays more downstage, closer to the audience) to turn their back to the audience to address the cast member. The term "upstaging" has since taken on the figurative meaning of an actor unscrupulously drawing the audience's attention away from another actor.

References

{{reflist Scenic design Stage terminology Parts of a theatre