backcloth
- noun
- /ˈbækˌklɔθ/
- UK
- The actors performed brilliantly against a colorful backcloth that depicted a stunning sunset.
Examples
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During rehearsals, the director adjusted the backcloth to better match the scene's mood.
-
Although this environmental backcloth may change from one scene to another, it plays little or no active part in its own right.
Academic text (1998) -
These endless or monster labels might be rather grandly described as the making of a theatrical wall, the subway cars treated as a neutral backcloth to be brought to life by dramatic gestures in paint.
Academic text (1990) -
All in all, Duelo emerges as an almost faithful recasting of Juegos, simply using a different backcloth against which to explore and legitimate the same concerns.
Academic text (1990) -
Thus, the main novelistic action is played out in a temporal and spatial vacuum, where time seems to stand still and which, in a sense, directly negates the realism of the historical, wartime backcloth.
Academic text (1990) -
For their school play, they created a beautiful backcloth featuring an enchanted forest.
Synonyms
A painted cloth or scene at the back of a stage showing where the story happens
A piece of cloth like a curtain that hangs in loose folds
A large curtain hung above the stage that lowers to make background scenery
A large curtain that people lower from above to make a background on a stage
How Decorative
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Backcloth is easy to remember: it is made from back (meaning 'the rear') and cloth, so it means a piece of cloth hung at the back of a stage to show the scenery, much like a backdrop.