Vomitorium/Vomitory

[TheatreImage]

When we were working in Arenas and Stadiums that was the place you did not want to stand to check the sound... those silly beer drinken people above you... never knew what to expect!

[Van]

Originally Posted by jneveaux

Van's right ......

Those are two words I can never hear enough of..... after the last two weeks I really needed to log on and read that. Thanks.

[wfor]

We had "voms" in a recent arena-set production I was in.

The only real voms I've seen were at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery. Its about a 1/2 thrust I suppose, and has two ramps that come up to the stage. Used in The Comedy of Errors, very, very well produced show.

It makes a fantastic entry point, as the performers seem to come up through the audience, rather literally.

The all school audience got a kick out of "vomitorium" when they were asked about in the after show Q&A session.

[jneveaux]

Originally Posted by Van

Those are two words I can never hear enough of..... after the last two weeks I really needed to log on and read that. Thanks.

Of course. Now that you've seen it in writing, you can rely on it.

[renegadeblack]

I'm not sure if it qualifies, but I have what we call the "chute" that leads into the house from back stage, officially, its an emergency exit hallway, but we use it very much so for entrances into the house, would that also be a vomitory?

[museav]

I have seen the term "vomitorium" applied to arenas, stadia and even churches in regards to audience entrances, so at least in modern usage I would have to go with the broader interpretation of an entrance through the audience area.

[seanandkate]

Another vote for Brad and Derek. I think that it originally was for audience entrances (I believe I read signs to that effect when I was visiting the Roman amphitheatre in Orange, France) and then in a more modern context, it came to mean an entrance through an audience area.

[Didaskalos]

In permanent late-Roman theatres, the vomitoria (sing. vomitorium) were in fact the barrel-vaulted passages under the stone bleachers through which the audience was "expelled" from the theatre. In modern theatres, however, the tunnels lead onto the stage and are used by actors and crew for entrances and exits.