文档介绍：1 Passage 1 Today, in most of the theatres in Britain, the stages are situated behind a sort of arch, called the proscenium ( 舞台) arch. The arch runs across the building with the stage onone side of it and the auditorium, housing the audience, on the other. The audience is kept to the area from which it can get a clear view of the stage. This type of theatre has been in use for three hundred years. It makes people feel, as they watch a play ora show that they are seeing a living and moving picture. The actor can ignore them until the end, when they applaud the performance. If an actor wants to speak to the audience he is apt to step out of the picture, as it were - down to the edge of the stage. Over the last few decades, since the Second World War, theatrical conventions have altered. Stage furniture or properties ( 道具)- "props", as they are referred to in the business - are now as few as possible. Elaborate ( 精心制作的) scenery is used only when it is going to last throughout the play, or when it is so constructed that it can be changed quickly. Modern theatres are built with the stage extending far in front of the proscenium arch, if indeed they have a proscenium arch at all. Electricity, already long in use, has recently had a revolutionary effect. A change of lighting is as good asa change of scenery, and simpler and quicker: it can light one part of the stage in place of anot