A to Z Challenge – Q is for ?

I was delighted to find a number of words beginning with the lettter “q” that were related to theatre in some way. Often this is a hard letter for those of us doing the A to Z Challenge. As are the letters “x” and “z”, but I’ll worry about them later.

Anyway, thanks to the Internet, I found a website, TheatreCrafts, that has a glossary of theatre terms. Guess where I will be checking for words at the end of the month. (smile)

Here are the words I found today.

QUADROPHONIC
A sound system which uses four independent speakers (or sets of speakers). The fore-runner of today’s Surround Sound. See Stereophonic.

I do dream of the day we will have more than one speaker and an elementary sound board. Then maybe we can surround the audience with the music that adds so much to a production.

QUARTER
Call given backstage by Stage Management 20 minutes before the start of the show (15 minutes before 
BEGINNERS). See also BEGINNERS, HALF.

We are not so formal in our alerts to the players. Mainly because we often do not have a specific stage manager. Actors arrive an hour before curtain time to get into costumes and do makeup, then we have a little pep talk. Just before curtain time, I, or my assistant director tell the players, beginners, to get in place for act one.

QUARTZ HALOGEN – Lights

Another dream of mine is to have a real light system.  While the technical side of theatre is not my strength, I do know that lights, along with the soundtrack, can add so much to a performance. We have always done the best we could within our limitations, but it would be nice to not have limitations. 

QUICK CHANGE
A change of costume that needs to happen very quickly takes place close to the side of the stage. Costume designers need to know about the need for a quick change so that the costume is made incorporating elements such as velcro and zips rather than buttons. A quick change room is often erected at the side of the stage to enable changes to take place in privacy.

This is probably only true for professional theatre. None of the community theatres I have worked in had anything like this. Nor did they have costume designers. Coming up with costumes is usually the responsibility of the player, with suggestions from the director, and often other players.  For quick changes in some of our productions, the player could step behind a black flat at the side of the stage where everyone waits to make an entrance. They all turn their backs while the player makes the change. If he or she needs assistance, one or two other players helps.