Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🎭 Toward audience 🎭 Front of stage
downstage

downstage

2 6.9
The part of a stage nearest the audience
  • noun
  • /ˈdaʊnˌsteɪdʒ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : parte delantera del escenario
  • She stood downstage, clearly visible to the crowd, as she delivered her lines.
  • downstage center

Examples

  • Girls, downstage, boys, upstage.

    A Chorus Line (1985)

  • "I took a spot downstage center and breathed in.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • The setting: Downstage sits a table, about six feet in length, covered by a linen cloth.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • Downstage center is a grass-thatched hut.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Now, I've been playing my soliloquy downstage right.

    Me and Orson Welles (2008)

  • As the eye scans from top to bottom, the pathetic scenario is pushed to the background by downstage visuals.

    Academic text (2000)

  • As the advisors attempt to console Zameis, who seems from their upstage vantage point to be crying, the audience sees him—downstage center—actually fighting to control his laughter.

    Academic text (2017)

  • The actors positioned themselves downstage to better connect with the audience.

  • During the rehearsal, the director asked everyone to move downstage for the last scene.

Synonyms

proscenium
vsdownstage
  • Specialized
3 9.1

Part of a theatre stage in front of the curtain, often framed by an arch

is the nearby stage zone itself rather than an architectural arch or divider
forestage
vsdownstage
  • Archaic
9.0

The front part of a theater stage that extends in front of the curtain

is simply the stage area closest to the audience rather than a projecting part

Antonyms

upstage
  • Specialized
3 6.9

The back part of a stage farthest from the audience

How Near

downstage
  • Specialized
2 6.9
center stage
  • US
8 3.9
upstage
  • Specialized
3 6.9

Surface Forms

downstage singular
downstages plural

Morphology

downstage = stage (transparent) = down + stage

The noun denotes the area 'down' (front) of the 'stage'; the spatial relation is a straightforward compound. [Postprocessing: moved 'down' from base_words to prefix]

Etymology

Downstage comes from the parts down and stage because the front of older stages was lower, so downstage names the area that is 'nearest to the audience'.