Stage house
Stage House is the physical structure that encloses the area above the stage and wings.
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Structure
Generally seen in Proscenium Theaters the Stage House begins when the Proscenium Arch ends. It usually consists of a grid a loading platform, and a tall open space below called a fly loft. Lights are hung here, as are drops, scrims, and cycs. The term Stage House also includes the 4 walls and ceiling of the backstage area.
History
Ancient Greek Theater
In the Ampitheatres of Greece Stage Houses were called skenes. Here it was a building in which the actors hid and made their entrances through. It is also assumed that machinery and props were stored here.
Roman Theater
As with their mythology, the Romans took the basic design of the skene for their own theaters. They developed the skene into a richly decorated single facade called a scaenae frons, and made the whole amphitheatres into one arena. Attached to the scaenae frons was a roof to cover the stage, this was a development from the originally open-air arenas.
Medieval Theater
Stage Houses were virtually eliminated during this time as theater was restricted to Pageant Wagons and platform stages with no backstage. There were, however, mansions on the side of the stage that sometimes encompassed the acting area, but were mainly reserved to showcase Heaven, on one side and Hell on the other.
1500-1900
During the beginning of the Renaissance the scaenae frons was brought back, but was no longer one continuous wall but was broken up with decorated archways. There was more of a backstage area and multiple levels of staging were introduced. With the development of the electric light in the late 1880's the area above the stage could be used to light the actors and not blind them, as the front of house lights did.
References
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