[SML] Stairs from audience to stage

Ben Thoron SML bthoronsml at gmail.com
Tue Jan 16 15:22:45 UTC 2024


One Regional theatre here...
Permanent access from seating to performance area is NOT necessary within
the auditorium.
Two reasons
We don't generally invite the public on stage.
We also treat the front our stage with extreme flexibility. We raise it, we
extend it, we cover it. Hang speakers and lights from it etc.

Circulation paths lead from the audience to backstage, through controlled
corridors.

To be noted, in 2 of the 3 spaces the front of the audience isn't
accessible at all.

Ben Thoron
The Old Globe

On Mon, Jan 15, 2024, 3:13 PM Bill Conner via Stagecraft <
stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:

> My initial inquiry was simply about the desirability or necessity for a
> house to stage in house path. (We've strayed from that.) Existing or new
> isn't relevant to that path.
>
>  For the related accessibility issues, those are relevant primarily to
> new, though not totally disregarded for renovations of existing.
> Wheelchair spaces just in the back row of course would not be even be
> permitted in new build today.
>
> 25 or so years ago a colleague said that accessibility has affected
> theatre design more than any thing else, and he was correct.
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 15, 2024, 2:10 PM Stephen Rees via Stagecraft <
> stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:
>
>> Hi Bill,
>> To address your query, you need to understand that if you were in a
>> wheelchair, you would be located in one of the reserved spaces at the rear
>> of the house. (These open areas were created by removing 20 of the original
>> seats in the late '80d, reducing the overall house capacity.) You would not
>> be able to access the front of the auditorium in any event due to the rake
>> of the seating area.  I think that may be the case in many auditoria.
>> Previous to the renovation and addition construction, you would have had to
>> actually go outside and through the parking lot to the stage door/loading
>> dock where a ramp gave access to the stage level.  Ramps were NOT part of
>> the original 1972 design and construction, the plans having been approved
>> in 1968 or 1969 prior to the ADA laws being written.  Those ramps were put
>> in as an afterthought in the late '70s and early '80s in advance of the ADA
>> as well. There was elevator access provided to the black box theatre on the
>> lower level but that was also installed before the Act.
>>
>> Since the completion of the addition in 2016, if you were in the provided
>> seating area in your wheelchair, you would exit the house like all other
>> patrons, go down the ADA compliant ramp cleverly laid out by the
>> architects, proceed out of the theatre lobby into the newly created
>> interior hallway to the backstage area and then through the doors into the
>> UL area of the stage.
>>
>> I'm pretty sure ours is not the only facility with these
>> particular restraints, but to remediate them in the existing space would be
>> nearly impossible.  To address the issue of compliance fully would require
>> the design and construction of a new facility, not the renovation of the
>> existing space.
>>
>> BTW, there is the unresolved issue of getting a wheelchair user into the
>> orchestra pit when it is in the fully down configuration. One would have to
>> load on before the pit dropped.  Ramping could be created in the trap
>> room below the stage deck but there has never been an actual need for that.
>> Topic for another day.
>>
>> I'm enjoying reading this thread and am glad to hear of other situations
>> for good or ill.
>> Best,
>> Steve
>>
>> Stephen E. Rees,
>> Professor and Chair Emeritus of Theatre - SUNY Fredonia
>> CCE-CC Master Gardener Volunteer
>> 716.366.0505 Home
>> 716.680.1565 Mobile
>>
>>
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