The Theatre Times: For ensemble pieces in theatre, where actors never once leave the stage, what becomes all-important are the transitions between scenes — how the action, settings and mood segue in transforming ways from one set-piece to the next. But often, even in projects with an extended period of rehearsals, transitions are sometimes afterthoughts put into place much closer to show-dates than might be considered desirable by an anxious stage manager.
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Transitions is the biggest challenge theater has in my opinion. I find it easy to create amazing and powerful "looks" and scenes that can last for however long, but as soon as there is a scene change, or the script calls for a black out, chaos happens. There is always that part where the actor walks off stage, do they lose character in that time? there is also just the sense of crew members walking around moving stuff, and although in a black out, most times you can tell what is happening. What happens in successful theater is when the transitions are seamless and a part of the show, just like any other scene from the script. It takes great collaboration with the designers, choreographers, and actors but when done, it is just another flawless part of the show that most likely goes unnoticed, but if it were to be noticed, it would take the audience out of that moment. And that is why it is so important to work diligently in these transitions, just to keep the audience invested in this world.
Transitions are always tricky, and often overlooked and disregarded until you reach the upper echelons of theatre. There’s a delicate balance between preserving the world that the characters are living in- and the audience too, hopefully- and getting the job done and making the changes on stage necessary to set the next scene. The importance of transitions is often discounted, but they contribute so much to the engagement- or lack thereof- of the audience. Anyone who’s ever sat through a silent 10+ second blackout through a set transition (especially in high school theatre) knows how painful it is, and how much it brings the audience out of the world of the play, and back into their world of wondering how much time is left in this moment. I always marvel at the performances that feel as if there are no transitions, when every part is so coordinated and so well layered that things feel seamless, even though there are major shifts.
Transitions are one of my favorite parts of theatre because of the blurred line between them being purely technical and artistic. No one wants to watch a boring technical transition, and yet still they have to happen efficiently and safely. I do agree with this article that transitions are generally the last thing on anyone’s mind until the end of tech, so more often than not they are an afterthought. But when you go and see a show it really is noticeable if the transitions were really thought through. I love seeing a show and then realizing the set is changed and not even consciously clocking in my head that they were changing the set. It was just a part of the show. Of course, every snow calls for a different kind of transition and I love that. I think transitions are so unique to that specific show at that place with those people. They seem to always be the thing that is not universal, which makes them, for me, one of the most interesting things to watch.
Scene transitions are an interesting logistical challenge that we’ve all had to deal with. I’d be interested to talk to someone about the change in the way scene transitions are done over the years. I’ve heard the theory that audiences expect more of a seamless transition because they are used to movies which can be cut to be seamless. My understanding is that larger shows tend to rely more on stagehands and the smaller the show gets, the more the actors are responsible for. Seeing a crew member in all blacks definitely takes you out of the show, but I think that’s true anywhere (even in the circus.) Having actors move scenery also adds a level of complication because that’s just one more thing that they have to worry about and get right. I’ve also heard the theory that more recent plays tend to have more scene transitions because they were written more for the screen. Thinking about older plays like the Sound of Music, I think that’s true. The lack of scene transitions falls onto the shoulders of the writer. Oedipus all happens in one scene.
Transitions can definitely be tricky. I've heard directors often say that these need to be "choreographed" as if this is piece of movement is part of the story. And it is often is. I've always believed that the best transitions are the ones that you barely notice until they are complete. But I do recognize that some do not have the luxury to be so discreet. I like that this article embraces that transitions might just have to be visible, and how full on blackouts can make the audience suspicious and uncomfortable if it exceeds a few seconds. Also, audiences are smarter than that. They know people are behind the production, and simply turning lights off doesn't mean they aren't. From a stage management perspective, transitions are both the most stressful and the most exciting, because so much can happen in just a few seconds. Taking the proper amount of time during tech can ensure safety and seamlessness in performance.
As someone with a rather extensive background in assistant stage management and crewing on deck, I have had a hand in my fair share of choreographing transitions. A big problem, like the article points out, is how conspicuous the scene transition is. When a blackout or fadeout of some kind exceeds a handful of seconds, it becomes awkward. Another trouble I often ran into was most of our scene changes were executed by members of our deck crew. The problem with that was directors like to run us up to the last second, and it's usually with the actors, so run crew has no time on their own to rehearse scene changes, which means day after day of performances is their rehearsal time. While they get better from performance to performance, the first couple of shows are usually pretty clunky. That being said, I do enjoy the challenge of how to make a scene change run smoothly.
Scenic transitions are quite honestly one of my favorite things to figure out when working in theatre. In high schoo, as the set designer, the responsibility of all the set transitions fell on me. Especially without automation, it was so fun to plot out where every set piece lived offstage, and choreographed how they moved. Near the end of my high school experience, I convinced my theatre teacher that the transitions were as vital to rehearse as the action on stage, and I was allotted a few hours a day of tech just to run the transitions and make them perfect with the deck crew, and the results of that change were amazing. People really came to my high school shows and immediately would notice how smooth the transitions are. This just showed how vital they are in the rhythm of a show. Plus they are terribly hard to get to work correctly, I cant imagine what it is like to choreograph with automation also in the equation.
Awkward or clunky transitions are one of the first and most obvious things you notice about a poorly-done show. I remember there was a specific playground piece last year where the singing and performance aspect was fantastic, but it was clear that there had not really been any rehearsal dedicated to working on the transitions, which happened in silence on a blued out stage, with one particularly bad one involving people placing a piece of furniture on the wrong side of the stage and having to come back out and put it where it actually should have been, taking about 30 seconds and being painful to watch. And it totally made sense why - during Playground, with time being so limited, obviously you would want rehearsal time to be dedicated to the actual music and performance to make it as good as possible. But people should also take transitions into account a lot more early than they think they do. Good, seamless transitions are as much a part of the show as the acting, and while people tend not to notice or remember the good ones, they certainly remember the bad ones.
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