STAGE

(THEATRE) [noun] [C] - the area in a theatre which is often raised above ground level and on which actors or entertainers performHe stood in the middle of the stage and looked out at the audience.The orchestra spent ten minutes tuning up before going on stage.In Scene 2, she is left alone on stage to reveal her feelings to the audience.He began his stage career at the age of 17 in a performance of 'Romeo and Juliet'.The play is a stage adaptation of William Golding's novel.The opera singer returns to the London stage (= will perform again in London) this summer.A stage is a particular area of public life.The issue of nuclear power has come to the centre of the political stage.The president was extremely popular on the world stage but was disliked in his own country.The concert was meant to begin at 9p.m. but the band didn't take the stage (= start to perform) until after 11.Her daughter is an artist and her son is on the stage (= is an actor).At the age of ten, he decided that he wanted to go on the stage (= become an actor).She always likes to take centre stage (= be at the centre of attention) in whatever she does.A stage direction is a description or instruction in the text of a play which explains how the play should be performed.In the stage directions it says that the servant enters from the right carrying a tray of drinks.The stage door is the door which is used by the actors and theatre workers when entering and leaving the theatre.We stood by the stage door waiting to get the actors' autographs.Actors or performers who have stage fright are nervous because they are about to perform.She suffered so badly from stage fright on her first night that she couldn't remember any of her lines.Stage left or stage right is the part of the stage to the left or right of the actors when they are facing the people watching the performance.The two women exit stage left.A stage manager is the person who is responsible for the equipment and the use of the stage during a play or performance.A stage name is the name by which an actor or entertainer is publicly known and which is different from their real name.David Bowie is the stage name of the singer David Jones.If you are stage-struck, you are interested in the theatre and want to become an actor or actress.I had been stage-struck since childhood and used to spend my all my time at the local theatre.If an actor says something in a stage whisper, it is intended to be heard by the people watching the play but it is pretended the other actors on the stage can not hear it.The king announces to the audience in a stage whisper that he is planning to kill his son.If you say something in a stage whisper, you intend it to be heard by people other than the ones you are talking to."Isn't he gorgeous," she said in a stage whisper and he looked round and smiled at her.