Stages & Auditoriums in Goa

Goa has a strong stage culture. Tiatr, konkani drama, school annual days, church feasts, dance recitals, music competitions and corporate events all happen on stages in parish halls, schools, colleges, hotels and community centres. Many of those stages were built with a single pair of curtains and nothing else, which leaves the backstage visible, the lighting spilling everywhere, and the performers with nowhere to wait unseen.

A working stage is dressed with a system of curtains, each with its own job: the house curtain that opens the show, legs at the sides to mask the wings, borders overhead to hide the lights, a backdrop or cyclorama at the rear, and often a mid-stage traveller to split the depth. The auditorium itself needs walls that make speech clear from the front row to the back, without making music sound thin.

We survey the stage and the hall together: the proscenium opening, the height to the grid or ceiling, the depth of the stage, how the curtains will be operated, and what the room sounds like when it's full.