The crucial thing about the Crucible stage is that it has the ability to be both epic and personal, and that is one of the very special qualities about it.

Gerard Murphy, actor playing Antonio Salieri in
Sheffield Theatres 2007 production of Amadeus

Since the invention of the fourth wall in the age of Ibsen and the Naturalists of the 19th century to the theatrical experience, the audience has been treated as an inconvenient necessity to the performance, regarded as ‘a cluster of Peeping Toms to be tolerated by actors and directors” (Spolin, Viola.  Improvisation for the Theatre.  3rd Edition.  Northwestern  University Press: Illinois (1999) Page 13).  The Proscenium Arch theatre, with its darkened auditorium and polite silent audience, is the result and has diminishing of the actor-audience relationship.

However at the beginning of the 20th century, a new breed of theatre practitioners emerged who saw“the audience [as] always “the other person”: as vital as the other person in speech or love” (Brook, Peter.  The Shifting Point.  Methuen London, London (1988) Page 132), the essential component to the creation of the theatrical experience.  In 1971, The Crucible theatre was built in Sheffield, with the largest thrust stage in England, and soon became host to some of the most exciting and influential theatre directors in 21st century Britain, amongst others: Michael Grandage, Jonothan Miller, Samuel West and now to Nikolai Foster.  Each director that has worked had one thing in common, a love of the Crucible stage and excitement over the possibilities that space offers for theatrical exploration.

J. L. Styan stated that the physical conditions of a play house are of utmost importance in creating a relationship between the actors and the audience, that the “physical relationship with the players
determined the emotional range of the play, the intimacy or remoteness and the immediacy or
alienation of response” (Styan, J. L. Shakespeare’s Stagecraft.  Cambridge University Press. 
Cambridge (1967).  Page 14).  As you can see from the diagram below, that although the Crucible auditorium hosts an audience of 1000, because it has the audience is on three sides rather than
end on (such as you would have in a Proscenium Arch theatre) the relationship between the actors and audience has the potential to be much more intimate. 

Jamie Lloyd, director of Sheffield Theatres’ 2006 production of Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker
described The space is “like a red, hot crucible; the audience surround you and they focus in
so much at the centre of the stage” (Sourced 1st November 2007 from http://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/creativedevelopmentprogramme/productions/
thecaretaker/director.shtml), with the potential to be both epic and intimate, whilst creating theatrical alchemy. 

The Crucible stage then, with its potential to captivate “actors and audience in an intense, deeply personal relationship second to none.”, and with a stage that can switch in a second from “epic, wide shots, bursting with dynamism and dramatic imagery [to] just as easily cut to extreme
close-up, where rich detail and intimate lives come into the foreground, the world fading into the distance”, is perfect for Peter Schaffer’s ground breaking play Amadeus.  A theatrical extravaganza in which the audience were not treated at the ‘Peeping Toms’ that Viola Spolin condemned, but as an integral part of the production.  Salieri uses the audience as his confessional, and by speaking to them, almost as another character, he “hooks the audience into the story and into the event” and with “Salieri’s self explanation to the audience [Shaffer creates] a much greater immediacy” (Nikolai Foster, director of Amadeus in November 2007 interview sourced from http://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/creativedevelopmentprogramme/ productions/Amadeus)  In the opening section of the play, Salieri uses the form of an invocation to call the audience forth into a relationship with him in which he is asking for absolution form the audience, his confessor:

(Singing)          Ghosts of the Future!
Shades of Times to come!
So much more unavoidable than those of time gone by!
Appear with what sympathy incarnation may endow you!
Appear You!
The yet-to-be born!
The yet-to hate!
The yet-to kill!
Appear … Posterity!

The House Lights reach their maximum and stay like this during all of the following

(speaking again)  There.  It worked.  I can see you!…

When asked why he decided to include the audience in this manner, Shaffer answered simply “I thought that was a much more lively idea than just showing the play as a series of dead, historical events. It seemed to me a very lively and electric event that approach”.

The concept of the audience playing an important role within a theatrical production, had been very much present within Renaissance theatre, but had become lost within the 20th century.  However as a reaction to Naturalism and the forth wall, this concept had began to emerge again.  The Variety Theatre of Filippo Marinetti was the beginning of the rejuvenation of the audience’s role.  Marinetti sought to create “a single undivided ambience for performers and spectators’’ (iMchael Kirby quoted in Bennet, Susan.  Theatre Audiences – A Theory of Production and Reception  (second edition).  Routledge, London (1997).  Page 5) by creating a theatre which “resembled smoke filled nightclubs” (Op.Cit. Bennet, Susan.  (1997) Page 15). Marinetti hoped to regain the intimacy of theatre that the “development of Proscenium Arch acting [had] drained” (Styan, J. L. Shakespeare’s Stagecraft.  Cambridge University Press.  Cambridge (1967).  Page 14).  Meyerhold and Grotowski, pillars of the modern theatre, joined Marinetti in his belief in the importance of the audience.  Meyerhold’s work “paid direct attention to the creativity of the audience”; where as Grotowski’s aim was “to cross the frontiers between you and me… To find a place where communion becomes possible” (Op.Cit Bennet, Susan (1997) Page 15), such a union requiring “the total integration of the audience into the performance” (Grotowski quoted in Innes, Christopher.  Avant Guarde Theatre.  1882 – 1992  Routledge: London (1993). Page 150).  Shaffer’s work does not take it to the extreme that Grotowski or Marinetti suggests, but he does make the active decision to make the audience part of the production, as he states to make is a “lively and electric event”.

The relationship with the audience is not the only challenging and exciting element to the Crucible’s thrust stage.  The manner in which the actors move on stage and the type of design the stage will allow is also extremely important, and also links back to the audience.

Because on a thrust stage the audience is located on three sides, the traditional acting rules can not be applied, and if you attempt to play the stage as you would on a proscenium arch stage, much of the audience would be neglected.  The Crucible operate a one price seat system that implies that although the experience of the production will be different depending on what side you are sitting, the quality of the experience should be equally as high wherever you are sitting in the auditorium, perfecting backing the principles of the thrust stage.

 The use of the thrust stage can be a liberating, yet unnerving experience for an actor.  Because the audience is on three sides of the stage, there are very few places where you will you be cutting off your audience, and indeed the positions that would be weak on a proscenium arch stage, become powerful on a thrust stage.  However if you play a thrust stage, as you would a proscenium arch stage, likewise the powerful positions for a proscenium arch stage, become weak.

In the diagram below, the power positions have been marked, these are the strongest positions from which the actor can perform and engage the audience. 

Position A:     At the top of the stage, the actor can take in all three sides of the audience, however if all the action was played up here, then the rest of the space would be very dead
Position B:     Placed here the actor can engage the audience on the right and left hand side of the stage
Position C:  Placed here the actor can engage the audience on the right and left hand side of the stage

Added to these positions, the use of diagonals on the Crucible’s thrust stage, become a very powerful tool.  The diagonals open up the playing space, allowing the audience to view the action between the actors. 

The use of diagonals particularly effective, if the actors are not stood opposite each other, as this can unnecessarily block their fellow actors from the audience behind then – a step to the left or right can really open up the playing space to the audience.  Alternatively, if they wish to maintain a straight line, the use of levels can be very effective in opening up the action.  For example in the production photograph below taken from Sheffield Theatres 2006 production of The Caretaker, the actors playing Mick and Davies may be sitting opposite each other; the more powerful character is in the chair and the weaker character is on the floor in front of him, this staging allows not the status of the two characters to be  expressed, but the levels also open the action up to the audience, allowing the character playing Mick to be seen by the audience in front of him and not being blocked by the character playing Davies.

Production image by Johan Persson. Copyright Johan Persson 2006.

Although the Crucible stage demands certain staging, it is also important to remember that even though you are engaging an audience on three sides, that we can still use minimal movement and be effective.  The drama practitioner, Graham Christopher reminds us that in order to encompass in all three sides and levels of the audience: a turn of one foot to the other or a figure of eight, is sufficient to take in the vast majority of the audience.

Each practitioner and director have their own ways of working the Crucible stage, and Nikolai Foster, the director of Amadeus is a man who understands the workings of the Crucible stage, is no different, his advice when creating work for the space can be summed up in the following quote:
“The room simply demands one serves the play and demands you ensure the actors are given free-rein to access the heart of the play and transmit this to an audience. This may sound straight forward, however, if it doesn't happen, everything and everyone is exposed in the most unhelpful way. As long as the space is respected, the challenges are simply those of producing the play”. 

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