Open Forum

I want to do a scavenger hunt as one of my first lessons to introduce for Theatre I and review for Theatre II. I thought this would be great for new students to get acquainted with the space, too. What would you include on your theatre basics vocabulary list? Their scavenger hunt will be in a table format with the headings Term, Location, Description, Who uses this? I would include one aspect for each and students would have to complete the other 3 sections.
Terms- light/sound booth, spot lights, catwalk, house lights, grand, legs, cyclorama, backdrop, backstage/wings, prop shelf, dressing room
Example: Dressing rooms; to the left and right of the stage through the door; large mirror covering 3 walls, counter under mirror, costumes on racks; actors, costumers/dressers




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Bethany Holt


Wynne AR
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I just did one this week with my middle school group. Since most of them are brand new to theater I did it the day after I went over the terms. It allowed them to be in the space and explore it more. It went much better than I anticipated. I had them team up with a randomly chosen partner and it was pretty basic, asking if we had certain items and how many. Then they had to fill in a table with the acting areas of the stage. It included whether or not we had a: cyc, apron, proscenium arch, battens, fly space, fly rail, back wall, trap, etc. Since we don't have a traditional theater space there were some things we didn't have (fly rail) but they had fun trying to remember the terms and find them. Mine doesn't sound anywhere near as detailed as yours will be.


Elneeta Timmons

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------Original Message------

I want to do a scavenger hunt as one of my first lessons to introduce for Theatre I and review for Theatre II. I thought this would be great for new students to get acquainted with the space, too. What would you include on your theatre basics vocabulary list? Their scavenger hunt will be in a table format with the headings Term, Location, Description, Who uses this? I would include one aspect for each and students would have to complete the other 3 sections.
Terms- light/sound booth, spot lights, catwalk, house lights, grand, legs, cyclorama, backdrop, backstage/wings, prop shelf, dressing room
Example: Dressing rooms; to the left and right of the stage through the door; large mirror covering 3 walls, counter under mirror, costumes on racks; actors, costumers/dressers




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Bethany Holt


Wynne AR
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Consider doing a Fire Safety Scavenger Hunt.
Draw-up a simple plan of each level of your theatre.
Send out different teams with different goals to find the various Fire Protection items around your facility:

• Fire Doors (they are uniquely labelled - show them what to look for).  Trick question for them is to see if they identify the any Overhead Rolling Fire Doors (or in older buildings maybe Horizontal Sliding Fire Doors), or if they just 'see' the normal hinged doors and don't think about the OHD's and Sliders.
• Smoke Vents (pretty simple -- they are only over the stage, but they have to count them), Smoke Vent Emergency release lines / stations (if you have the vents you must have the ability to manually release them from the stage floor).
• Fire Curtain & Smoke Pockets (maybe have them identify all of the associated components like the perimeter release line, the manual release devices, control boxes / panels, descent damper, etc.)
• Fire Sprinkler Heads (good to know where they are so they don't bang into them with scenery).
• Fire Sprinkler Pipes (noting that they are different than scenery / lighting battens and you NEVER hang / attach anything to them).  Trick observation:  If you have a stage that has a hollow storage void underneath it, it may have sprinklers inside it.  Also, if you have a walk-on gridiron service deck, you will probably have fire sprinklers both above it and below it.
• Fire Sprinkler System Master Shut-off Valves / Fire Sprinkler Riser Room (or area).
• Fire Sprinkler System Test Drains / Valves.
• Fire Sprinkler System Fire Department Connection (FDC) (usually exterior to the building)
• Nearest Fire Hydrants.
• Fire Lanes in parking areas & driveways.
• Fire Extinguisher Cabinets (FEC) (Is it in a cabinet, or just hung on the wall?  where?, what rating - A,B,C?; what type:  Dry Chemical?, CO2?, Wet Chemical?; What size (weight)?, last Inspection date?.
• Fire Hose Cabinets (FHC) (note, some local Fire Codes have changed over the years so there may be Fire Hose Cabinets that do not have a hose in them, just a connection for a hose).  Are they labeled clearly?
• Smoke Detectors and/or Rate-of-Rise Heat Detectors.
• Retroreflective (optical) Fire / Smoke Detectors (if any).
• Fire Alarm Pull Stations.
• Fire Alarm Control Panel (FACP).
• Fire Alarm Strobes.
• Fire Alarm Speakers.
• Fire Alarm Bells.
• Fire Alarm Horns.
• Fire-Proof Cabinet (Paint / Chemical Storage)
• Fire Blanket(s).
• EXIT signs (have them report back if the lights are not functioning, too).
• Emergency Egress Lights (can be the battery pack 'Frog Eyes' and/or the little red lights you see glowing up inside some ceiling mounted light fixtures (typically lay-in-tile fluorescent / LED type fixtures).  Could also include Stage Edge Safety Lights if your stage is equipped with them.
• Circuit Breaker Panels
• Emergency Flashlight Stations.
• First Aid Stations.
• AED (Automatic Emergency Defibrillator) Stations.

The point of finding and identifying all of this stuff is so they know where it is and so they know that they cannot block access to it or obscure the visibility of any of it.

Bonus points for reports about the history of any of these items, and any Building Codes or Fire codes that regulate these items.  (Hints:  visit iccsafe.org and nfpa.org)

Extra Bonus points if they compare it to similar codes in other countries.

Extra Bonus points if they can cite theatre fires or incidents where these items were successful in protecting a building, or were not maintained and were contributing factors in the destruction of the building.

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Erich Friend
Theatre Consultant
Teqniqal Systems
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