the.com/stage
a few feet of wood that makes a thousand people stop breathing at once
means A raised platform where performances happen, or, more broadly, a distinct phase or step in a process.
from From Old French 'estage' — a dwelling, a floor of a building, a position — which traces back to Vulgar Latin 'staticum,' rooted in Latin 'stare,' 'to stand.' So at heart a stage is simply a place where something stands; the theatrical raised platform came first in English, and the figurative 'stage of a journey' or 'stage of life' grew from the same idea of a fixed point you arrive at along the way. The 'stagecoach' kept the older sense too: a coach that ran in standing-points, stage by stage.
- upstage origin
- raised rear floors made actors literally tilt heads back
- break a leg
- may mean bending the leg to take bows
- trapdoors
- Shakespeare's stage hid a 'hell' beneath the boards
- the apron
- the stage lip jutting past the curtain line
- stage left
- named from the actor's view, not yours
broadway — theater district in new york city with 41 theaters and $1.5 billion in annual revenue
royal shakespeare company — founded 1961 in stratford-upon-avon, performs on stages including the swan theatre
sydney opera house — opened 1973 in sydney, australia with multiple performance stages and 1.4 million annual attendees