Revolving stage
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A revolving stage is a mechnically controlled platform within a theatre that can be rotated in order to speed up the changing of a scene within a show. Though it is commonly supposed that the first western theatre to feature a revolving stage was the esidenztheater in Munich, installed by Lautenschläger in the last decade of the nineteenth century for presenting the operas of Mozart, Harold M. Priest has noted[1] that a fully revolving set was an innovation constructed by the hydraulics engineer Tommaso Francini for an elaborately produced pageant, Le ballet de la délivrance de Renaud, which was presented for Marie de Medici in January 1617 at the Palais du Louvre and noted with admiration by contemporaries.
It is common practice to reverse the rotation of a rotating stage as frequently as possible to prevent cables from becoming twisted, and eventually breaking.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Harold M. Priest, "Marino, Leonardo, Francini, and the Revolving Stage" Renaissance Quarterly 35.1 (Spring 1982, pp. 36-60) p. 37, note 3.
