Left, right, and center: blocking begins

The first two weeks of our Mikado rehearsals are over, the cast has had lots of time to work with our music director learning and perfecting the songs in the show and now it is time to turn them over to our stage director for blocking, but what is blocking? In simplest terms, blocking is the process by which directors arrange actors on the stage. Popular understanding states that the term blocking originated in the 19th century when directors and librettists like Gilbert would use actual blocks to depict the actors and move them around a mock stage to get an idea of what the show will look like. There are several factors that go into blocking a show; dramatic presence, sight lines to the audience, as well as set and lighting design.

As these shows are primarily visual pieces, it is important to consider how a scene will look when blocking. If your two main love interests are singing a duet, it would be better to place them in a secluded corner together rather than on opposite ends of the stage, or if you have a powerful king making a grand entrance it make sense to stage him on a raised platform while the rest of the cast looks up at him in reverence. Sight lines are simple enough to explain, they are what the audience can see. Each stage has it's own peculiarities to where the audience can see and what is considered "off stage" and it is crucial for a director to know where those lines are. Set and light design also play a role in blocking, as mentioned before if you have a grand entrance and the set incorporates a raised platform, the natural choice is to block the actor there. On the flip side, it is important to know where the lighting designer will be aiming the stage lights as an actor in the dark is an unseen actor.

There is one important member of the production staff we have not talked about yet, the stage manager. The stage manager is really the one responsible for making sure a show runs smoothly. They attend every rehearsal and take detailed notes about blocking and entrances. When a show begins its run, it is not uncommon for the director to remove themselves from the production, they may still be present and will offer notes on the performance, but at this point, the stage manager is in charge of calling entrances and making sure the blocking is carried out in the manner the director laid out.

A note about terminology; you may have heard the term stage right or stage left and wondered what they mean. The reason behind using terms like stage left and stage right is to avoid confusion. When the director is staging, he/she will be viewing the scene from the point of view of the audience. Obviously, the actors view it from the opposite point of view. If a director were to say "move left" the actor would have to question "his left or my left". To alleviate this, theater companies have adopted the use of stage left, stage right, up stage, and down stage. Up stage refers to the back of the stage (a term derived from a type of stage that rises away from the audience), down stage is the opposite (the side closest to the audience), left and right stage are from the actors point of view, and the term house left or house right may be used to indicate the stage from the audiences point of view.

Got it? There will be a test.

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