Upstaging - was Re: TRIVIA: Dan in duel & Dueling Positions

[backstagemystic]

To understand the term "upstaging," one needs to understand not only 
stage directions, but their history.

It used to be (and still is in many opera productions for sake of 
tradition) that stages were "raked" or "sloped" because often times 
audiences were sitting on a flat plane...so a sloped stage allowed 
the audience to better see all of the performers.

Hence, when an actor was walking back and away from the audience, he 
was literally walking "up" the sloped stage.

Nowadays, the audiences sit on a slope and stages are flat...but the 
stage directions (which are always from the POV of the actor) were 
retained.

Okay, now for the term "upstaging":

If an actor plays upstage of another actor, it forces the other actor 
to turn at least somewhat away from the audience to face him and give 
him focus (this also where the term "pull focus" comes from...the 
upstage actor has just "pulled focus" from the other and to 
himself)...this weakens the presence of the downstage actor, while 
strengthening the presence of the upstage one (whose front is still 
facing fully toward the audience).

Often times, the actors are intentionally "blocked" (blocking is the 
term used to describe the positioning and movement of the actors) so 
that focus is given where it is needed (e.g. a general delivers a 
moving speech to rally the troops, so he'll be positioned, usually 
standing on something, in the center of the stage while his soldiers 
are downstage and either side of him, looking upstage to him, giving 
him their undivided attention) ...so in this case, the "upstaging" is 
planned and appropriate.

Of course, the term "upstaging" is not limited to just the physical 
postion/relationship of one performer to another...it is often used 
to refer to any situation where focus is pulled from one performer to 
another.

It becomes a negative when one performer inappropriately draws focus, 
via any means, away from another...regardless of where that performer 
is standing in relation to another.  It could be someone getting over-
energized and going way over the top when a scene is supposed to be 
much more subdued...or it could be more subtle, such as a performer 
looking bored and disinterested when his focus should be intent upon 
the key action.

Then there's one of my favorite examples of upstaging, which happened 
during one of the Academy Awards shows in the 70's...where it was 
interrupted by a streaker who dashed across the stage....yep, 
upstaging at it's finest.

;-)

BM