Avondale High School Theatre Company

ATC Company: All students that participate in any given ATC event.

ATC Family: All students and their families, to include grandparents and other significant student family members.

Awards Gala:  A posh dress up occasion to honor company members with special awards, similar to the Oscars. All friends and family are encouraged to attend.

Backstage:  The entire area behind or beyond the stage, including the dressing rooms.

Black Box: Ed Guay’s classroom and the space used for practice and smaller performances. It is at the end of the Fine Arts Hallway and is painted all black inside.

Box Office: Ours is in the Lobby and is open for ticket sales during regular rehearsal times, after ticket sales have started.

Call Board:  Ours is on the door to the walkway behind the stage, usually has an attendance sheet and notes for the Company. We now use email to post information too.

Cast:  All students who participate onstage.

Costume Shop:  The room next to the Scene Shop where all the costumes are created, stored and repaired. You must have a reason to come into the Costume Shop, it is not a hangout for company members with nothing better to do.

Crew: All students who participate in the technical production of the performance.

Dark: A day when there is no performance or rehearsal. Traditionally, in the ATC, the night before Opening Night is DARK, however, we often have students tweaking things to make the production perfect.

Downstage:  the front of the stage, or that portion of the stage closest to the audience.

Drama Board:  The group of students that are voted to lead the ATC student body. They have to be Juniors or Seniors and must apply for the position.

Drama Boosters: The group of parents that support the ATC. Their primary goal is providing funding and assistance for the MIFA festival, but they also assist the director and feed the company whenever necessary.

Drama Camp: A camp run by ATC students under the direction of Ed Guay for K-8, usually the last two weeks of June.

Dramathon:  A fundraiser that any student can participate in. The students spend the night in the theatre and participate in various improve games and performances. Students get pledges from family and friends for participation. Parents are always welcome for chaperoning. Hours are usually 6pm Saturday to 6am Sunday.

Elfing: The act of working on the production at a non scheduled rehearsal time. Often students will stay late or come in on a Saturday to work on the set or costumes when things are not going as smoothly as they could and time is getting short. All Company members are encouraged to “elf” outside of their normal crews, as this shows initiative and dedication to the ATC.

Fine Arts Hallway: the hall that is directly behind the stage, housing the Band, Choir, Black Box, and Dressing Rooms.

Flat: Basic unit of scenery consisting of a wooden frame. Usually covered with muslin or canvas and painted, it can also be covered with thin wooden veneer.

Fly System:  Our handy dandy, state of the art Vortex system. While it is possible to “fly” a person, ala “Peter Pan”, that is not the goal of the Fly System. It is a network of compter controlled pulleys and lines that allow us to raise or lower scenery, props or lights to drop out of or into the view of the audience.

Gel:  A thin sheet of colored plastic (originally gelatin -- hence the name) that is placed in a gel frame and inserted in a lighting instrument to add color to the beam of light. Careful use of gels in a lighting plot can play a major role in setting the emotional mood of scene.

Ghost:  the spirit of the unfortunate worker that fell through the roof and died on the stage during our remodeling in 2004.

“Heads on Stage”, “Heads Up” or “Heads”:  Yelled by anyone who wants to warn people to look up and watch out for things that could fall on their heads.

Lead Staff:  The group of students who are in leadership roles for a production. This includes Student Director, Stage Manager, Producer and can include Crew Chiefs for Sets, Lights, Sound, Props and Costumes.

MIFA – Michigan Interscholastic Forensic Association: http://www.themifa.org/Theatre/tabid/134/Default.aspx
This is a theatre festival that the ATC usually participates in. See MIFA page for MIFA related FAQ and definitions.

Monologue:  Speech by a single actor. The speech is generally made by the actor as if speaking to himself and is revealing of his or her thoughts or feelings. Often required in an audition, many resources exist online or at the library or bookstore.

Noises Off:  Refers to the method of producing sound effects prior to the introduction of sound recordings into the theatre in the 1950's. Sound effects such as thunder, wind, doors slamming, footsteps, horses' hooves and the like, were produced by "off-stage" by live means.

Off Book: the state an actor is in when they no longer need to be looking at their script and has their dialogue memorized. Preferably not occurring for the first time on Opening Night.

Orchestra Pit: Ours is often covered by the “Pit Cover” portion of the stage. If the cover is off, try not to fall in…you wouldn’t think the warning would be necessary, but…

Production Week: The week that the performance is in. It is like Tech Week, but includes the traditional dress rehearsal, which means that all actors are in full hair and makeup and costume.

Properties (Props): All physical items on stage with the exception of the scenery. This would include lamps, chairs, pens, paper, books and all manner of such things.

Quick Change:  Often, an actor needs to change clothes very quickly and needs to do so in the wings, not in the dressing room. There is not much room for privacy, so each actor works with a costume crew member to make the situation as comfortable and easy as possible.

Scenery: Term used to describe everything on stage (except props) used to represent the place at which action is occurring.

Scene Shop: Ours is across the hall from the backstage. This is the large room in which scenery is designed and built. There is a back door to a parking area where things or people can be dropped off during regular rehearsal times.

Scrim:  A backdrop made of a lightweight, rather fragile black fabric. Depending on where the lighting is, it can be transparent or opaque. Please be careful around the scrim when it is down, it tears easily and is expensive to replace.

Set: The surroundings on stage, visisble to the audience, in which the action of a play develops.

Stage Right: the actors right hand side, while facing the audience

Stage Left:  the actors left hand side, while facing the audience

Spike: The process of placing marks with either paint or tape to designate where pieces of scenery are to be placed. In MIFA, spike refers to the time of practice set up before the competition time officially starts.

Stage Manager: The member of the theatre crew who has overall charge of everything connected with the stage and backstage. This is the person who has responsibility for running the entire performance from opening curtain to final curtain call. This is usually a Junior or Senior who has proven to be well organized and responsible.

Strike: To disassemble the set and remove it from the stage. Usually the strike occurs on closing night, however during the Spring Musical, it often happens the Monday after closing night.

Tech Dinner: The Boosters provide a dinner to all Company members (to include the Pit Band in times of a musical) on one night each in Tech and Production Week. The show runs through and then the kids eat around 6:30 ish. The parents bring in the food, ready to eat. A committee in the Drama Boosters keeps track of who volunteers to bring what.

Tech Week:  The week that is before the week that the performance is in. It is the time that all the technical aspects are put together and the show is run in its entirety.

Trapdoor:  A door in the stage floor through which actors can enter and exit. We don’t have one.

Traveler: The main curtain that travels across, or up and down. Ours is a red curtain.

Upstage: The area to the back of the stage.

Wings: we refer to “the Wings” as the area to both sides of the stage not visible to the audience, as in "the actor waiting in the wings".

Youth Ensemble:  A group of Avondale students grades K-8 who participate in a ATC production, usually the Spring Musical. Casting is at the discretion of the director and lead staff after a group audition.