Feature · Venues
Plan your stage and audience layout.
Choose a stage form, enter the room’s dimensions and arrange the seating banks. Taking the show to another venue? Check the scenery and lighting there, then adjust that room’s layout where needed.
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- Five stage forms
- Own layouts when needed
- Lighting positions per venue
- Free, no account
The fireplace extends past the edge of the smaller stage. Try moving it in for this venue.
The two rooms start with shared scenery positions. In your production, choose Own layout before making changes for one venue.
Stage dimensions
Choose the form, then enter the room’s dimensions
A venue describes the stage and the seating banks around it.
Choose proscenium, end-on, thrust, in the round or traverse. Start from one of five presets and enter your measurements. The form determines the outline, seating arrangement and which dimensions apply: open stages use grid height, while a proscenium stage uses its opening height.
A proscenium stage frames the view through an arch. End-on puts the audience at one end without an arch. A thrust has audiences on three sides, in the round surrounds the stage, and traverse puts two banks opposite each other.
Seating banks start with estimated positions and dimensions. Enter their measured width and distance from the stage for a closer model of your venue.
- Playing width
- width of the main playing area
- Stage depth
- datum line to the upstage edge
- Apron depth
- deck extending downstage of the datum line, where the form has an apron
- Wing allowance
- space beside the playing area, where the form has wings
- Proscenium or grid height
- the height entered for the venue’s trim check
Studio
8 × 7m · Grid 4.5 m
School
10 × 8m · Grid 5 m
Playhouse
12.9 × 9.75m · Proscenium 6 m
Thrust
10 × 5m · Grid 6 m
In the round
8 × 8m · Grid 5 m
The five starting presets. You can change the form and dimensions of any preset.
Fit checking
Find what needs adjusting
Switch venues to check the scenery across every set. The check uses each piece’s size, position and angle to find anything extending beyond the playing area.
The fit check lists affected pieces and the edges they extend past. It leaves the design unchanged so you can decide what to move, resize or remove.
- The scenery
- Check scenery against the stage outline, including an apron or thrust where the form has one.
- The rig
- Check lighting positions and hanging heights against the venue dimensions you entered.
- The whole show
- Counted across the running order, so a piece flagged in one set is one problem, not three.
- Which edge
- See whether a piece extends past stage left, stage right, upstage or downstage.
Heights
Check the rig against the venue height you entered
Setplot checks applicable rig trims against the height entered for the venue: proscenium opening height behind an arch, or grid height on an open stage. For example, an LX bar at 5.4 m is flagged when that value is 4.2 m. This is a fit rule in the model, not a statement of a theatre’s maximum flying height.
Each venue keeps its own bar positions and trims. Compare the model with the venue’s technical information: opening height, grid height and batten travel are different measurements. The section helps you review the entered geometry; it does not certify a rig.
Touring
Prepare the design for each venue
A new venue shares the production’s scenery positions by default. Check that layout in the new room. If it needs changes, choose Own layout before moving scenery so the other venues keep their positions.
- Give a venue its own layout
- Move scenery for the smaller stage without changing its position in the original room. The pieces themselves are still shared, so changing a piece’s size affects every venue.
- Lighting for each venue
- Each venue keeps its own bar positions and hanging heights. The fixtures, colors and lighting looks are shared across the production.
- Paperwork for each venue
- The model and drawn sheets use the selected venue’s scenery positions. Each sheet names the venue so the team can identify the right plan.
Set up your venue
Choose a form for your first room or add another venue to compare layouts. A free account includes two venues per production.