Handbook
Learn
Plain-English guides to theatre craft: what the paperwork is for, how stage drawings work, and how a production is actually put together. Free to read, and written for anyone making theatre.
Reading paperwork
- The paperwork of a theatre productionA production runs on a second body of documents the audience never sees. Here is the common shape of it, what each document records, and who usually keeps it.
- What a lighting plot is, and how to read oneA lighting plot is the rig drawn to scale on the groundplan, one symbol per fixture. Here is what the plot shows, what each symbol tells you, why every plot carries a key, and the order to read one in.
- What a channel hookup is, and how to read oneA channel hookup is the whole lighting rig set out as a list, sorted by the channel that controls each lantern. Here is what a channel actually is, what each column means, and why the order matters.
- What a magic sheet is, and why it is not a plotA magic sheet is the one page a lighting designer reads live at the desk, with the rig boiled down to systems and the channel numbers that bring each one up. Here is what goes on one, and how it differs from the plot and the hookup.
- What a shift plot is, and how to write one that works in the darkA shift plot lists every scene change in a show, move by move, with who carries what to where. Here is what one contains, and how to build one that survives a blackout.
Drawing
- How to read a theatre groundplanA groundplan is the stage seen from above, drawn to scale and measured from two fixed lines. Here is what those lines are, what the drawing shows, and how to find your way around a plan somebody else drew.
- The plaster line and the centre line, explainedThe two fixed reference lines a proscenium stage is measured from, where each one runs and how a position is read off both at once. Also what a setting line is, which lines get confused with it, how the pair get marked out on a real stage, and what stands in for the plaster line in a space with no arch.
- Drawing at 1:25 and 1:50, and how to choose between them1:25 and 1:50 are the two scales most theatre drawing is done at in the UK, and the larger number makes the smaller drawing. Here is what each ratio means on the page, how a scale rule and a scale bar are read, and how to choose between them.
Design craft
- Stage configurations, and what each one asks of your set designProscenium arch, thrust, in-the-round, traverse, promenade and immersive staging each put the audience somewhere different. Here is what each configuration is, and what it demands of a set design.
- Sightlines, and how to check them before anything is builtA sightline is what one seat can actually see. Here is which seats decide a design, how to check them on a plan and a section, and what to do when a seat loses the moment that matters.
- What is a white card model?A white card model is a plain, unpainted scale model of a stage set, used to test shape, space and scale before committing to a finished design.
Looking for how Setplot itself works? Help