[SML] Stairs from audience to stage
Bill Conner
billconnerastc at gmail.com
Mon Jan 15 01:26:19 UTC 2024
So Stephen. If I'm in a wheelchair and seated in the auditorium, and am to
go to the stage, what is the route? Out of the auditorium and through the
corridors and enter one of the stage wings?
What the building code (and nearly identical in the ADS Guidelines) is:
"An accessible route shall directly connect the performance area to the
assembly seating area where a circulation path directly connects a
performance area to an assembly seating area."
I'm trying to to get the requirements to better define "directly connect".
(Personally, if a person not in a wheelchair can go directly to the stage
within sight of the audience, than a person in a wheel chair should also.
Non- discrimination.)
BUT, while interesting, I'm really hoping to learn the general desirability
and necessity of the connection for anyone, with or without disability.
What I think I'm hearing is that in educational settings, they are
desirable. I don't think I've heard about professional spaces, which will
probably be split between the producing house - a regional theatre for
example; and the multi-purpose facility - national tours, symphony, local
companies, whatever they can book.
Thank you all for reading this and responding!
On Sun, Jan 14, 2024, 6:11 PM Stephen Rees via Stagecraft <
stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:
> Although I've been gone from the program at SUNY-Fredonia for 13 years,
> nothing has changed with the main proscenium theatre as regards interior
> passage from stage to auditorium. The 1972 I.M. Pei building with
> Rosenthal Associates as consultants placed a set of 32" wide stairs on
> either side of the stage aligning with the outer audience aisles in the
> house. The steps rise a total of 32" and the onstage walls serve as the
> sides of the oddly shaped, curved front, hydraulic orchestra pit. The
> building as originally constructed had no other access from stage to FOH
> apart from a long circuitous route involving hallways and a trip to the
> second floor and back down! Either that or go outside in any weather, a
> nuisance in WNY. The steps are pretty useful most of the time and when
> necessary, we would construct plugs that filled them in at stage level. In
> that circumstance, if there was a pit orchestra, there was a 32" jump to
> the auditorium floor. No space at auditorium level for temporary steps, nor
> interest in building "temporary" non-scenic elements. On the occasions
> where the pit deck became performance space and was lowered below the
> permanent deck level, it was a fairly easy, albeit large step up to the pit
> floor. Directors LOVED to use those side stairs for entrances/exits and
> the house could easily become an extension of the stage and be performance
> space. With the addition to the building by Debra Berke Partners (now
> TenBerke) completed in 2016, there is now an indoor hallway from backstage
> to FOH with the former exterior building wall making one side of the very
> wide hallway.
> Stephen E. Rees,
> Professor, TD, and Chair Emeritus of Theatre - SUNY Fredonia
> CCE-CC Master Gardener Volunteer
> 716.366.0505 Home
> 716.680.1565 Mobile
>
>
>
> On Sun, Jan 14, 2024 at 4:28 PM Bruce Bennett via Stagecraft <
> stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:
>
>> We’ve done a lot of accessibility work in our theatres over the last few
>> years. Ontario provincial accessibility legislation is to come into effect
>> in 2025 and we’ve had funding available.
>>
>> Work across theatres has included installation of two lifts for control
>> booth access (50% of our booths need to be accessible), and two for stage
>> access - along with a lot of wider doors.
>>
>> In all cases we’ve not changed stage fronts, with existing architectural
>> side-stage stairs in concert halls/larger theatres and auditorium floor
>> level stages in smaller theatres. Where we’ve added lifts they’ve been
>> installed to provide wing access from egress corridors at the front of the
>> auditorium.
>>
>> In two theatres we have “temporary” staircases at extreme edges of the
>> thrust and they rarely ever move.
>>
>> Bruce
>>
>> "A society grows great when old people plant trees whose shade they know
>> they shall never sit in." - Greek proverb
>>
>> > On Jan 14, 2024, at 14:39, Jon Ares via Stagecraft <
>> stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:
>> >
>> > In my space (opened in 2006), there are no "permanent" steps... it was
>> > designed for all people to enter through vestibules off the apron on
>> > both sides - imagine side stages, but a wall instead. So, if panelists
>> > or guest speakers, et al were to go up on to the stage, they had to
>> > walk up (away from the stage), around the seating, and into the
>> > vestibule. We had a portable, shop-built, as-ugly-as-possible portable
>> > temp stairs for rehearsals, etc, but every time we'd have VIPs, we'd
>> > always be asked to bring them back out, because no one wants to go for
>> > a long walk to get on stage. So.... for a show where the director
>> > wanted actors to enter/exit through the House, I designed some steps
>> > at each end of the apron to architecturally look like the theatre...
>> > set pieces... not permanent.... not to Code.... and of course, you can
>> > guess, in 2024, they're still there, because it's "imperative" VIPs
>> > and speakers have quick access from the front row to the stage.
>> >
>> > My district just opened a brand-new PAC at the other big high school
>> > in my district, and the space was designed with side stages as the
>> > access to the apron, and I've asked the Technical Coordinator there if
>> > anyone has asked for/demanded steps up to the stage, but she says no
>> > one has asked yet, but they've only had a few events (comparatively)
>> > and one show in December, when the pit was open, so it hasn't been an
>> > issue yet.
>> >
>> > Maybe the solution is never show an alternative, and no one will
>> > demand the alternative. If I could turn back time.... then again,
>> > I'd have even more people jumping on/off the stage.... :(
>> >
>> > - Jon
>> >
>> >> On Sun, Jan 14, 2024 at 10:07 AM Bill Conner via Stagecraft
>> >> <stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> I've been working on some code changes and wanted more views on just
>> the desirability of a permanent in the house route from audience to stage.
>> While my current work concerns an accessible route, I really want to hear
>> about the functional and artistic issues affecting the choice of having a
>> permanent in the house path or route. My present big picture view is that
>> for theatre - opera, drama, dance - permanent stairs are undesirable for
>> artistic reasons. For a very multi purpose space, like in high schools,
>> where far and away the overwhelming majority of stages and auditoriums are,
>> the path or route seems inevitably necessary.
>> >>
>> >> Avoiding the complications accessibility brings to this for a
>> moment, correct or expand or just pontificate on the desirability of
>> permanent path or route.
>> >>
>> >> Thank you.
>> >> ____________________________________________________________
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>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Jon Ares
>> > www.arescreative.com
>> >
>> > ____________________________________________________________
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